On scuttling transportation

The failure of a state transportation package illustrates the limits of ideology. Transportation — like basic education, a primary responsibility of state government — should be a best-politics-is-no-politics issue.

Wednesday night’s joint statement from the bipartisan House and Senate negotiators and Gov. Jay Inslee is depressingly oblique.

“We agree that transportation infrastructure is important to our state, and we remain committed to finding a solution in the regular legislative session that works for everyone,” it reads. “The next step in this process will be to continue this dialogue in the legislative process.”

Lawmakers are adept at continuing dialogues. There were 12 negotiating sessions, and plaudits to the governor and the negotiators for trying to get to yes. The trouble is, you can never get to yes if Senate Republicans can’t produce the votes, an obstacle compounded by the 2014 election cycle.

Points of contention include bike-pedestrian-transit funding as well as appropriate use for the sales tax and the state’s Model Toxic Control Act.

Any package will need to go to voters for their approval. That’s why the Senate Republican blueprint dedicating less than two percent to transit won’t fly. On the Democratic side, a $75 million Metro shortfall could spell a Transportation Benefit District in King County to self-tax and jettison a statewide package altogether.

Republicans always have been reliable, pro-Washington Roundtable advocates for a strong transportation system. Alas, an anti-tax faction that considers transit code for social engineering has dug in its heels. What happened to the party of Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan on the national level has found expression in the Northwest.

Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann distill the challenge in their 2012 book, “It’s Even Worse than it Looks.”

“However awkward it may be for the traditional press and nonpartisan analysts to acknowledge, one of the two major parties, the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier,” they write. “Ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

These are not Dan Evans Republicans. Senate Transportation Co-Chairman Curtis King helped sandbag a new Columbia River Crossing because it could accommodate light rail, tossing away $1 billion from the feds.

On Dec. 2, we described the Senate Majority Coalition as a “promising experiment in sensible centrism.” But it looks more like centrism without centrists.

Prove us wrong, get moving and bring out your votes.

Talk to us

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Sunday, Sept. 24

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Randall Tharp’s month recovery coins after battling a fentanyl addiction.  (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Editorial: Fentanyl crisis should force rethinking of approach

A continuum of care, that includes treatment in jails, is imperative, says a journalist and author.

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2015, file photo, pumpjacks are seen operating in Bakersfield, Calif. On Friday, April 23, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would halt all new fracking permits in the state by January 2024. He also ordered state regulators to plan for halting all oil extraction in the state by 2045. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Comment: If ‘peak oil’ is ahead why is oil industry doubling down?

Fossil fuel use could peak by 2030, but Big Oil may be putting profit ahead of prudent transition.

Reports back removal of Snake River dams to save salmon

The recent letter to the editor claiming that removing dams on the… Continue reading

Comment: ‘Legacy forest’ term hides an unproductive intent

Meant to lock up state forest lands, it discourages responsible and valuable timber management.

Comment: Effort to lower drug costs could hurt other patients

Those suffering from rare diseases face a longer wait for medications if research is discouraged.

Forum: Hospital waiting rooms shouldn’t be patient warehouses

Why are hospitals, like Providence, understaffed with nurses, leaving patients to wait for hours for care?

Flowers bloom on the end of a dead tree on Spencer Island on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Restore salmon habitat but provide view of its work

Comments are sought on a plan to restore fish habitat to the island east of Everett with popular trails.

FILE - Six-year-old Eric Aviles receives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from pharmacist Sylvia Uong at a pediatric vaccine clinic for children ages 5 to 11 set up at Willard Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. In a statement Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021, California's public health officer, Dr. Tomas J. Aragon, said that officials are monitoring the Omicron variant. There are no reports to date of the variant in California, the statement said. Aragon said the state was focusing on ensuring its residents have access to vaccines and booster shots. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Editorial: A plea for watchful calm this time regarding covid

We don’t need a repeat of uncontrolled infections or of the divisions over vaccines and masks.

Most Read