Initiative plan seen as too costly

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

	Doug MacDonald
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State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald says a proposed statewide initiative that would earmark more than one-third of the state gas tax for construction of new freeway and highway lanes may leave his agency with little money for anything else.

What's more, he added, the money would be redirected to many projects the public doesn't support.

"The notion that we would pave over this planet and move on to the next one has pretty much passed in this country," MacDonald said yesterday.

A group headed by Bellevue Square owner Kemper Freeman Jr. has said it plans to file a voter initiative next week that would divert 10 cents from the state's 28-cents-per-gallon gas tax to a new "congestion relief fund." For the most part, that money could be spent only on new general-purpose lanes that meet congestion-relief criteria specified in the measure.

The money involved is substantial. During the 2001-03 biennium, when the gas tax was 23 cents, it raised about $1.5 billion.

The proposal doesn't suggest what transportation projects might be cut to provide more money for highway lanes.

"We think DOT, the Transportation Commission and the Legislature should deal with that," said Bruce Nurse, vice president of Freeman's Kemper Development.

He said he hopes the initiative would spur the Legislature to increase overall transportation spending.

But MacDonald said that if the 10 cents comes out of the existing gas tax, deep cuts will be necessary. "You do the math," he said. "I suppose we turn out the lights on the bridges."

Of the 28-cent tax on each gallon of gas, MacDonald said:

• Five cents is earmarked for projects the Legislature approved last year.

• About four cents goes for debt service on bonds the state has sold to build existing highways.

• About 11 cents is passed on to cities and counties for local road projects.

• A little over a penny supports the state ferry system.

That leaves state highways with just seven or eight cents, which MacDonald said his agency splits about evenly between maintenance and new construction.

If 10 cents is earmarked for new lanes, "you're in for a big surprise if potholes isn't something you really like," MacDonald said.

But Nurse likened the state's efforts to address congestion so far to "taking an aspirin for a terminal illness... "

"After 15 or 20 years, you've got to add some capacity," he said, and MacDonald's agency has built far too little.

MacDonald cited a recent poll conducted for the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District as evidence voters don't support widespread construction of new general-purpose lanes.

But Nurse said research Freeman has conducted in recent months shows they do.

While the initiative has not yet been filed, a draft bill version is circulating in the Legislature. In addition to earmarking gas-tax money for new lanes, it would direct 15 percent of the state's revenue from truck weight fees to the new "congestion relief fund."

It also would waive the sales tax on projects constructed with money from the fund.

The bill would open HOV lanes to general traffic if an analysis shows such a move would reduce peak-period congestion for at least five years.

The bill asserts that state transportation department projects have exceeded national average costs, and requires that new projects exceed "prevailing national costs" by no more than 25 percent.

The bill also lists 27 King, Snohomish and Pierce county projects that it says would be eligible for money from the congestion relief fund. They are the same projects Freeman proposed to the Regional Transportation Investment District board last May, along with an analysis contending they would reduce year 2020 congestion by more than a third from 2002 levels.

The analysis Freeman commissioned concluded that, of the 27 projects, adding the equivalent of two lanes in each direction to Interstate 5 from SeaTac to Northgate would do most to relieve regional congestion.

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

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