Sims offers regional transportation plan; 3-county board is deadlocked

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

King County Executive Ron Sims jumped back into the regional transportation debate yesterday, unveiling a $7.2 billion package for the county that he contends is just what the voters ordered.

Sims' aides hope to present the project list this afternoon at a meeting of business, labor and environmental leaders — informally dubbed the "Funders" — working to reach consensus on what kind of package the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District should submit to voters in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, perhaps this fall.

Differences over taxes and King County projects — especially whether to include light rail — have deadlocked the district's board for 18 months.

Sims, a Democrat and candidate for governor, said his package dovetails with voter preferences revealed in a Funders poll and other public-opinion research. He predicted that whatever plan the board puts on the ballot will resemble his.

But Metropolitan King County Councilman David Irons Jr., R-Sammamish, a regional board alternate, said the plan shortchanges the suburbs, especially South King County, and doesn't invest enough in replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Highway 520 bridge.

Biggest items in Sims' transportation package Interstate 405: $2.085 billion. Most would be spent adding one lane in each direction from Tukwila to Bothell which, together with existing HOV lanes, would be open to transit and car pools for free and solo drivers who pay a toll. Light rail north to Northgate and south to SeaTac: $1.33 billion. Alaskan Way Viaduct: $1.1 billion, mostly to replace viaduct south of South King Street with new surface roadway. Highway 520: $570 million. Sims' aides said that, along with an estimated $1 billion in tolls, the money would replace old four-lane bridges across Lake Washington and Portage Bay with new six-lane bridges but fund no improvements on land. Highway 509: $850 million to extend freeway south from South 188th Street in SeaTac to Interstate 5. Bus purchases: $250 million to allow Metro Transit to expand service about 10 percent over six years. Distributions to county and cities: $200 million to replace revenue lost to Initiative 776, which repealed $15 annual county vehicle-license fee used to fund local road projects. Highway 167: $112 million to extend HOV lanes from 15th Street Northwest in Auburn to Highway 410 in Sumner. Aurora Avenue "Bus Rapid Transit": $110 million for frequent, all-day bus service in restricted lanes. Source: King County Department of Transportation

"It's a very interesting, Alice-in-Wonderland concept," Irons said.

Sims' plan does not include recommendations on what taxes should be raised to pay for the projects.

In comparison with the $14.1 billion, three-county plan a majority of the district board has tentatively endorsed, Sims' plan is slightly smaller: Taxes that would generate $7.2 billion in King County would produce a total of about $12 billion in all three counties.

It also invests more in transit and less in roads — especially Interstate 405 and Highway 167.

But it is similar in size and many details to a proposal Sims, Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg and then-Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel released in May 2002.

He acknowledged he doesn't have a vote on the regional district board; its members are all county-council members. But "I am the only person elected countywide in this region who has been dealing with transportation for quite some time," Sims said. "I just thought it was time to lend a countywide perspective and lead. ...

"My biggest fear is that we will talk ourselves into another impasse."

Sims said he developed his plan after months of talks with interest groups and elected officials. Of the $7.2 billion, $1.33 billion would go toward extending Sound Transit's Seattle light-rail line, now under construction, north to Northgate and south to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and South 200th Street in SeaTac.

Sims has pushed to include both projects for nearly two years, but the regional district can't fund light rail under its existing authorizing legislation. Sims yesterday repeated his call for the Legislature to change the law.

That won't happen, said Metropolitan King County Councilman Rob McKenna, R-Bellevue, a regional board member and light-rail critic. Subsidizing light rail "will make it impossible to fund a new Alaskan Way Viaduct, a new 520 floating bridge and other regional priorities," he said.

Sims acknowledged that, under his proposal, not all tax money raised in the suburbs would be spent there. But he said recent public-opinion research suggests voters pay little attention to political borders in setting transportation priorities.

Not so, McKenna countered. "Each part of the county has critical needs," he said. "(Sims) is suggesting implicitly that the rest of the county should be happy to pay for Seattle's projects."

Metropolitan King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, another board member and organizer of the Funders group, said she's pleased Sims' package "attempts to incorporate values and principles that I think were made evident by the poll."

But she said he didn't include enough money to widen Highway 167, a South King County priority.

Aaron Ostrom, executive director of anti-sprawl 1000 Friends of Washington, called Sims' plan "a significant step forward, but there's room for improvement." He said he likes Sims' emphasis on transit and his plan for Interstate 405 but said the proposal still doesn't include enough transit for the Eastside.

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

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company