By David Ammons
AP Political Writer
OLYMPIA — Legislative negotiators have agreed on a $16 billion proposal to help fix severe traffic congestion in the central Puget Sound region.
The package, developed by a House Democrat and a Senate Republican, would allow King, Pierce and Snohomish counties to ask their voters to approve local taxes to augment state transportation dollars.
The legislation will be a key part of the Legislature’s transportation debate when lawmakers convene next week. The House and Senate already are mulling a proposal by Gov. Gary Locke to boost state transportation taxes, including a 9-cent increase in the 23-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax.
Locke and most lawmakers have concluded that state dollars alone will be inadequate to pay for the megaprojects needed to relieve the worst congestion in the heavily populated central Puget Sound counties.
Those projects include work on I-5, I-405, Highway 522, the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle and Highway 167.
The regional plan sketched out Thursday by Sen. Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, and Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, would authorize a public vote in the area, with projects and the actual tax plan to be developed locally.
The tax package could include a vehicle fee of as much as $100 a year, a parking tax, a half-cent sales tax increase for roads and a half-cent for transit, tolls on new structures, a car-tab tax for transit and a new Seattle monorail system and utilization of unused local tax capacity.
The taxes would be levied only in the three counties.
The plan could generate as much as $16 billion over 10 years, about two-thirds for roads and the rest for transit and the monorail.
"The plan bridges the gap between the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans and the east and west sides of Lake Washington," Murray said. "It allows voters to choose to fund significant improvements to our region’s highways, while continuing to promote transit solutions that relieve congestion."
McDonald called for quick action of the compromise.
"Our region is at a crossroads," he said. "The people who commute to work every day or who battle our traffic to get their children to school have lost all patience and are looking for a creative regional solution from this Legislature."
The public vote is essential, McDonald said. "We’ve heard loud and clear that the voters want a say in how their money is spent."
The duo worked over the holidays to get a bill ready in time for the session. As the key negotiators on the issue, their recommendation is expected to carry weight.
The monorail provision was added during negotiations, as was the mix of transit and pavement. The bill also would allow the regional group to link with Sound Transit to use some of that organization’s unused tax capacity for transit and carpool projects.
The money would be spent for construction and equipment, but not for operations or maintenance and preservation.
Lawmakers still are debating the state finance plan and list of projects. They have reached no agreement on the size of the package and whether to refer it to the voters.
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