New tax district proposed to save Puget Sound

If Seattle-area voters just agreed to tax themselves for mass transit, would they be willing to do the same to help restore Puget Sound?

The Puget Sound Partnership wants to put that question to the test.

The partnership, a state agency created in 2006 to lead a revival of the ailing Sound, is preparing to ask state lawmakers to lay the foundation for a new source of money to help fund a cleanup that will cost billions of dollars.

Any public vote on a new tax could still be years away and could involve the counties that ring the Sound. The partnership won't ask people for a new tax now, given the poor state of the economy and the early stage of the cleanup effort, said David Dicks, the partnership's executive director.

But it wants lawmakers to create a local improvement district — much like Sound Transit — that could then seek a new tax when the economic and political climate is better.

The idea is part of the final plan to clean up the Sound, which was released Monday before an audience at the Seattle Aquarium that included members of the Washington congressional delegation; local, state, federal and tribal leaders; business people; scientists; and activists.

However, there already were questions about whether voters and lawmakers have an appetite for more taxes.

Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology, said last month's resounding "yes" vote on Sound Transit's $17.9 billion transit plan, encouraged him. "If people are willing to tax themselves for that, maybe they will be willing to tax themselves for Puget Sound," he said.

But several state lawmakers were cool to the idea.

Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, chairman of the House Ecology and Parks Committee, said that eventually he wants a new source of funding for the restoration. But he was leery of creating a new bureaucracy relying on local taxes, rather than state funding.

"I'm concerned about putting more burdens on local governments," he said.

Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, said he wants to see more evidence of what should be done, and of reforms to better use existing resources, before considering anything further.

"Give me a solution and then explain to me that you need more money," he said.

Puget Sound advocates hope the plan unveiled Monday will be part of that solution, and help persuade politicians and the public to fund it.

It calls for a transformation in the way we develop on land circling the Sound, an issue that touches on everything from road construction to where homes get built.

It would include more vigorous protection and even purchase of critical undeveloped land, better coordination of where growth is allowed, more control of toxic stormwater runoff and additional regulation of things like new bulkheads along shorelines.

In the next two years, the region should boost spending by nearly $200 million above the current $400 million spending levels, according to the partnership. At least that much extra should be spent every two years until 2020, the partnership said.

"Plans are wonderful. But the rubber really meets the road with, 'Can we get it done?' " partnership director Dicks said.

Not surprisingly, given the state of the economy, Puget Sound boosters sought to cast the restoration plan, called the Action Agenda, as an economic stimulus.

Gov. Christine Gregoire, in a prepared statement, said it "will result in the creation of hundreds, if not thousands, of green-collar jobs throughout the region. The Action Agenda will also help maintain a strong tourism, seafood and boating industry."

By billing the restoration work as a jobs program, the partnership says it hopes to get $50 million of the extra spending from a federal stimulus package expected from the incoming Obama administration.

But Upthegrove predicted tough odds for getting more state money, in the face of a $5 billion budget shortfall for the coming two years. Roughly $100 million of the $200 million would come from the state budget, according to the partnership's proposal.

"I think we're going to be lucky to hold onto what we already have," he said.

Meanwhile, Bill Ruckelshaus, head of the partnership's governing council, and a veteran statesman of environmental issues, cautioned the audience not to lose momentum now that they have a plan.

"Now the hard part begins," he said.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com