OLYMPIA — A Snohomish lawmaker introduced three bills Monday aimed at raising money to make U.S. 2 safer without hiking taxes.
The legislation put forth by Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, would divert portions of revenue collected on car rentals, license plate replacements and driver’s license renewals into a new account for projects on designated safety corridors.
Kristiansen said the three proposals combined could steer about $18.5 million into the account. More importantly, he said, it would give the state the power to raise roughly $250 million a year by selling bonds paid off with the revenue.
“We’ve got to get some money to solve this problem. We have an opportunity here to make some inroads on an important issue,” he said.
People in the Skykomish Valley are still reeling from the death of Thomas Turner, 17, the Monroe High School junior killed in a crash Dec. 28 as he traveled home with a carload of friends after a day of snowboarding at Stevens Pass.
Turner was the 47th person killed in an accident on the highway between Snohomish and Stevens Pass since 1999. Of those fatalities, 16 occurred in crossover crashes, including Turner.
Tom Cock, Thomas Turner’s father, said state lawmakers need to start paying for safety improvements to U.S. 2. The current estimated cost of all improvements is about $2 billion.
“The time is now to get really serious about this road,” Cock of Woodinville said Monday. “It’s an outrage that no one notices that this road needs to be fixed.”
Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, said she will schedule hearings on Kristiansen’s bills.
“We’re talking about trying to prioritize how we handle our transportation in the future,” Clibborn said. “These are safety issues. All we’ve been hearing about lately is congestion issues. I think this will help balance it out.”
The bills, if enacted, could annually generate an estimated $5 million from license plate replacement fees, $6 million from driver’s license fees and $7.5 million from car rental taxes. Kristiansen said this is money collected above what the state needs to administer these taxes.
The dollars would go into an account and be spent on designated safety corridors on U.S. 2, Highway 20 and U.S. 97.
Kristiansen stressed the key is bonds that can be sold and this stream of money used to repay them. He said the state gains up to $100 million in bonding authority for every $7 million of guaranteed revenue.
And, he said he plans to introduce additional bills to tap other existing sources of funds.
Success this session on any of his proposals is going to be difficult.
For one reason, Kristiansen is a Republican operating in a Democrat-controlled Legislature whose leaders know that he’s opposed the last two increases in gas taxes for road projects around the state. Neither one contained funds for U.S. 2 partly because of his opposition.
Fred Walser of Monroe, who leads a local effort to improve the highway, said it is “very doubtful” that state policy makers would direct transportation dollars into U.S. 2 projects this session because there isn’t any extra money in the budget.
It’s also because lawmakers are looking at paying for other transportation fixes.
The governor is proposing to spend $27 million to install concrete barriers in place of cable on a stretch of I-5 north of Marysville. She’s also proposing $100 million to build replacements for the Steel Electric class ferries that have been taken out of service.
“U.S. 2 is more important than the cable barriers, more important than the ferries,” Walser said.
The U.S. 2 Safety Coalition that Walser leads plans to spend $2,500 on a lobbyist to make its case this session. The coalition is a grassroots group of local residents, officials and business owners.
Overall improvements for the highway are now expected to cost about $2 billion and include widening the road from two to four lanes in segments.
Only one out of 56 projects recommended in the study has money. The state plans to spend $3.6 million this year to grind centerline rumble strips on the highway between east of Monroe and Stevens Pass.
The state has neglected U.S. 2 for decades despite a rapid population growth along the highway, Cock said. Lawmakers need to fix safety problems before focusing on easing traffic congestions.
The longer state officials wait to pay for U.S. 2, the more expensive it will be to fix, he said.
“This is inviting more tragedies,” he said. “There is going to be more people to die on the highway.”
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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