Transportation panel gains, loses in measure

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The state House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill that gives the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) two unconventional new ways to pay for road and transit projects — but takes away much of another big potential revenue source.

The bill, which passed 52 to 43, allows the district to ask King, Snohomish and Pierce County voters to approve a tax based on miles driven and tolls on any arterial or highway.

But the measure, House Bill 2531, also says the district can ask voters for a sales-tax increase of no more than 0.2 percentage point. That's just half as much as the district's board tentatively proposed last September.

And the sales-tax money could be spent only on transit or "high-priority" projects in danger of failing, such as the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. Existing law contains no similar restrictions.

The regional board, which is working to put a package of projects and taxes on the November ballot, decided to ask the Legislature for new revenue sources last month, after a poll indicated a big sales-tax increase would hurt any proposal at the polls.

House Transportation Chairman Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the bill's chief sponsor, said he's not wedded to the two new sources in the legislation and is willing to consider other, more familiar taxes.

But the regional board has had trouble deciding what new taxes it wants, he said: It backed away from its original request for authority to impose a sales tax on gas and a larger regional gas tax in the face of oil-industry opposition.

"There are 12 days left (in the legislative session)," Murray said. "They need to focus on the fact that if they want a legislative fix for the November ballot, time is running short."

In addition to the sales tax, the district already can ask for an annual vehicle-license fee of up to $100, a motor-vehicle excise tax of 0.3 percent, a regional gas tax of up to 2.8 cents per gallon and tolls on new or rebuilt roads.

But the sales tax is by far the largest money-producer. Cutting it in half would trim the district's tentative package from $14 billion to about $10 billion.
 
Murray's Senate counterpart, Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, said the House bill "basically guts the RTID (regional district) concept." With a lower sales tax, it won't be able to build much, he said.

Horn said "citizens would come unglued" if the district proposes widespread tolling. As for the tax on miles driven, "I don't know how anybody would do it, or how they would collect it, or how much money it would raise."

No state or local government in the United States imposes such a mileage tax. Oregon plans to test it next year as a possible replacement for its gas tax with a pilot program involving 400 cars equipped with new, electronic odometers.

Information from those odometers could be downloaded and the tax collected at gas stations.

The House bill says the regional district may tax all miles traveled by vehicles registered to residents of the three counties, or just miles traveled within the three counties, or just miles traveled in certain corridors.

The tax could be collected annually when vehicle-license tabs are renewed or periodically by some other method, the bill says.

Consideration of the mileage tax has been pushed by the "Funders," an influential group of business, labor and environmental leaders searching for consensus on regional transportation.

Jim Kelley, a Funders leader who represents Vulcan, Paul Allen's investment company, acknowledged there are many questions about such a tax.

"We don't know at this point what the public's appetite would be for this," he said. "We've just been trying to find a usable user fee, something that is more directly linked to how much people drive."

The House bill also eliminates a requirement that the regional district spend most of its money on projects associated with major state highways, opening the door for possible funding of light rail.

But replacing the viaduct and Evergreen Point bridge should be the district's top priorities, Murray said, and King County board members' insistence on dividing money equally among Seattle, the Eastside and South King County threatens to undercut that.

"It's a recipe, I think, to accomplish nothing," Murray said.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231

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