By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
OLYMPIA — A new poll of Puget Sound residents to be released today shows that while transportation is foremost on voters’ minds, voters wouldn’t approve an 8-cent per gallon gas tax increase without increased attention to mass transit.
But Snohomish County was the exception. Voters polled here showed a preference for roads over increased funding of trains, buses or ferries.
Peter Hart, a nationally prominent pollster, conducted the survey of 700 Puget Sound voters in Snohomish, King, Pierce and Kitsap counties over three days last week. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent. It was funded by a group of businesses that don’t want to be named.
Hart said that when people were asked to name the most important problem facing state government, 45 percent said transportation, followed by the state budget at 18 percent, education at 10 percent, taxes at 8 percent and unemployment at 7 percent. Other issues rounded out the list.
Transportation, Hart said, "overwhelms and engulfs every other issue that may be facing the state."
A negative rating for the state’s roads and highways was given by 59 percent, and 54 percent said traffic congestion "must be dealt with now" rather than waiting for better economic times.
But only a "tenuous" 49 percent were in favor of the plan to raise gas taxes by 8 cents to pay for transportation projects, Hart said. For the plan to pass statewide, support would have to be much higher in the heavily congested Puget Sound region to make up for what’s sure to be fewer votes in the less congested eastern half of the state.
Seattle and King County voters much preferred making public transit a part of any traffic solution, Hart said, whereas those polled in Snohomish County were more in favor of focusing on roads vs. mass transit than the rest of the region.
Snohomish County County Executive Bob Drewel, who was briefed on the poll for a couple of hours Monday night, said that’s not surprising, since local voters just passed a sales tax increase for Community Transit last fall and would naturally want to turn to fixing the roads now.
The poll showed that 40 percent of voters would support increased taxes, and 14 percent would oppose them, Hart said, and winning over the rest will be up to legislators — and possibly the businesses that paid for the poll. That’s one reason the unnamed businesses commissioned Hart. Before they agree to help pay for a campaign to convince voters to increase the gas tax, they want to make sure it has a chance of winning.
"It’s not a bad lead going in," said Rep. Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds, vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee, who said he only had 32 percent of the vote at the start of his first successful campaign for office. "The issue is you’ve got to persuade the undecideds."
Cooper hadn’t yet seen the poll results Tuesday — Hart presented them to legislative leaders and reporters, and they’ll be widely available today — but he said initial reports indicated more public support for the House version of the transportation plan that’s being negotiated right now. The Senate plan is $2 billion larger than the House plan, but it spends $400 million less on rail and transit, he said.
Businesses have been heavily lobbying legislators to pass a gas tax increase themselves instead of waiting to ask voters, and they’ll likely use the poll results to further their cause.
"I would be very surprised" to see voters punish legislators for voting on the tax in Olympia rather than putting it on the ballot, Hart said. "The backlash is going to occur if the state government fails to do something about transportation."
Drewel also said it was "extraordinarily important" that legislators pass the increase themselves, rather than wait on an iffy and expensive ballot measure and lose valuable construction time.
"If you step out and lead," said Seattle political consultant Bob Gogerty, who coordinated the poll, "people aren’t going to hold it against you if you solve the problem."
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 1-360-586-3803 or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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