Transit district loses business backing

By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Members of the board of the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID), the panel drafting the plan, are divided on whether this means a fall vote is dead.

Yesterday many of the region's top business leaders withdrew their support, saying polls show this isn't the year to ask voters to raise taxes to pay for road and transit projects. The RTID board had been counting on business to finance a fall campaign.

"Our conclusion is, it's just too hard a hill to climb this November," said Ken Johnson, a Bank of America vice president.

Meanwhile, the Sound Transit board today is likely to scuttle an invitation from the RTID board to add some of its transit projects and taxes to the November package. Some political and business leaders have argued such a partnership is needed for any transportation package to pass.

The so-called "joint ballot" must win the support of 12 of the 18 Sound Transit board members. Seven already say they certainly or probably will oppose the deal.

Given the business community's withdrawal, "a few board members have told me there's no need to discuss it, that it's DOA (dead on arrival)," said Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, Sound Transit's board chairman.

The business community's announcement came from the Washington Roundtable, whose members include CEOs and other senior executives of such prominent companies as Boeing, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser, Bank of America and Puget Sound Energy.

Those firms have been involved for six months in negotiations on an RTID package. The announcement came after the companies received the results of a new, private poll conducted earlier this month.

The Roundtable said transportation remains a pressing issue and called on the Legislature to take the next step by "acting on a package of high-impact projects" next year.

Metropolitan King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, and Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Bonney Lake, both serve on the RTID board and said the Roundtable's statement means there probably won't be a November vote.
 
Both said the board should keep working, and that a 2005 election remains a possibility. But without money for a fall campaign, "we don't stand a chance," Patterson said.

The Sound Transit board's likely decision is "another nail in the coffin," she added.

Metropolitan King County Councilman Dwight Pelz, D-Seattle, another board member, said earlier this week the panel should drop its plans for November.

But Snohomish County Councilman Gary Nelson, R-Edmonds, the RTID board chairman, said the panel should continue working toward November "because there's a lot of projects that need to be done now." And Metropolitan King County Councilman Rob McKenna, R-Bellevue, another board member, said other interests, including suburban chambers of commerce, have expressed willingness to bankroll a fall campaign.

McKenna questioned whether the new poll, which has not been made public, is as negative as business leaders say. He said some Roundtable members don't want a transportation package on the November ballot because they're more interested in winning voter approval for a statewide education-funding initiative that also calls for a tax increase.

"They want to clear the decks for it," McKenna said. "They're looking for ways to improve their chances."

He, Nelson and Bunney also said they think an RTID package can win without Sound Transit.

The RTID board approved a $12.8 billion draft package last month that would be the largest public-works program in the region's history. It calls for a sales-tax increase of 0.3 percentage point; a $75 annual vehicle license fee; a 0.3 percent motor-vehicle excise tax; and a 2.8 cents-per-gallon regional gas tax.

In King County, much of the money would go for widening Interstate 405, replacing part of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and replacing the Highway 520 bridge. The draft package also assumes Sound Transit participation, including dollars to help extend that agency's Seattle light-rail line north and south.

The Sound Transit-RTID "joint ballot" idea surfaced after some political and business leaders concluded earlier this year that more transit would help an RTID package win voter approval. The district, by law, must spend most of its money on roads.

The partnership appealed to some Sound Transit officials because it offered hope of money to extend light rail years ahead of the current timetable. But the deal would be complicated and require Sound Transit to come up with cost estimates for light rail that some fear could be premature and come back to haunt the agency later.

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