Freeman plans initiative to fund more highways

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

	Kemper Freeman Jr.
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A new group headed by Bellevue Square owner Kemper Freeman Jr. plans to file a proposed statewide initiative for the November ballot that would earmark more than one-third of the state's 28-cents-per-gallon gas tax to build more freeway and highway lanes.

Bruce Nurse, vice president of Freeman's Kemper Development, said the initiative is in part the product of frustration with the slow pace of the Legislature and the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District in addressing the Seattle area's traffic woes.

"Early last year, some of us started working on a Plan B," he said.

Political consultant Doug Simpson said the new political committee, Let's Get Washington Moving, probably will file the proposed initiative with the secretary of state's office next week. A draft version is circulating in the Legislature, he added.

He said both measures would direct 10 cents of the 28-cent gas tax into a "congestion-relief fund." Nurse said money from that fund would be directed to projects that increase capacity on state highways by adding general-purpose lanes.

Simpson said the diversion would produce about $8 billion over 10 years — enough, with anticipated federal grants and the initiative's proposed elimination of the sales tax on affected projects, to add significant capacity in 10 or 12 congested corridors.

Freeman is a longtime and prominent freeway booster and foe of light rail. Last year, he released a report that urged construction of 27 new road projects, arguing they would reduce 2020 congestion 36 percent below 2002 levels.

Those projects included:

• A new freeway north from the Snoqualmie-North Bend area to South Snohomish County.

• Two to four additional lanes on Interstate 5 from South Tacoma to Skagit County.

• Four to six additional lanes on Interstate 405.

Simpson said the draft version of the proposed initiative specifies the 27 projects are eligible for funding from the "congestion-relief fund."

Some of those projects already are funded in part by the nickel increase in the gas tax that the Legislature approved last year. Others are likely to be included in a package the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) may submit to voters, perhaps this fall.

Nurse and Simpson said the initiative is silent on what might be cut from the transportation budget to spend more on new lanes.

State transportation officials could not be reached for comment last night. But some gas-tax revenues are used for ferries and city and county roads. Peter Hurley, executive director of the pro-transit Transportation Choices Coalition, said the state already faces a big backlog of highway safety and maintenance projects.

Hurley said Freeman's approach won't solve congestion, because more freeway lanes will just generate more traffic. "If you like the traffic in Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix, sign this initiative," he said.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com

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