Highways package readied for ballot

It took five years, but a regional planning group has finally decided which lanes, roads and ramps to offer the voters in a $14.5 billion proposal this November.

The list includes $1.1 billion in new taxes to help narrow the funding gap on a possible $4.4 billion, six-lane Highway 520 floating bridge — on the assumption that the state would provide gas taxes and drivers would pay a round-trip toll of up to $6 when the span opens in the late 2010s.

"There is no other plan that solves 520," said Metropolitan King County Council member Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac. She vice-chairs the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District, which approved its list in a 6-1 vote Thursday.

In a last-minute move, the group ditched the controversial "Cross-Base Highway," proposed to connect the fast-growing Spanaway area to Interstate 5 in south Pierce County. Some neighbors and the Tahoma Audubon organization had objected that a new highway would damage rare oak prairie.

Next, the plan must be endorsed by the Snohomish, King and Pierce county councils. Then it would be combined with a sales-tax increase to fund Sound Transit light-rail extensions, in a joint ballot measure.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg reiterated that he will veto his county's piece of the plan unless Cross-Base is restored. He said without a highway serving south-county industries, growth will shift north and overwhelm the Puyallup Valley. With his veto, conceivably, Pierce County could end up voting on just the transit portion of the plan.

In another late change, the group added a road to link the Sammamish Plateau to Highway 202, via 244th Avenue Northeast.

Pierce County Council member Calvin Goings cast the sole "no" vote Thursday, saying a proposed expansion of Highway 162 in Sumner would increase sprawl and ruin farmland.

The roads portion would be funded by a sales-tax increase of 1 cent per $10 purchase and an annual car-tab tax of $80 per $10,000 of vehicle value. The road projects are worth $6.9 billion in 2006 dollars, or $14.5 billion if inflation, cash reserves, finance costs and overhead are included through 20 years of construction.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631