State ferry mess a symptom of government's culture of failure

Promises are important to us. When promises are kept, trust is built.

Unfortunately, promises and trust do not go hand-in-hand with the public and politicians today. As a result, confidence in government is very low.

All political persuasions have contributed to this problem.

I am part of Generation X — those people ages 28 to 43. Studies show when members of my generation are deceived, they tune out those who fail them. According to the theory, when government fails to deliver its promises, confidence erodes among those of my generation.

A pattern of broken promises has led to citizens of all ages losing faith in government. I suspect the generations before me long for a time when government was more accountable — and the generations after me are growing cynical about the future.

As a state lawmaker, I am often asked, "What would you do to improve our transportation system?"

My answer is simple: "Keep our promises."

Our state has an abysmal record of delivering on promises for transportation infrastructure the past seven years — and a recent Washington Policy Center poll confirms the public is frustrated. It found 69 percent of Washingtonians feel government is doing a poor job of dealing with their top transportation priority: relieving traffic congestion.

And our transportation challenges are not just limited to our roadways.

The Legislature raised the state gas tax by 5 cents in 2003. As ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee, and the only Generation X member negotiating the budget that year, I joined other state lawmakers in making an important promise to taxpayers.

We dedicated $285 million to build four new ferries to replace our 80-year-old Steel Electric class vessels. The first ferry was scheduled for delivery in 2008.

As we begin this year, the state has not even completed a design on a single ferry. Translation: The project is two years behind schedule and $97 million over budget.

This broken promise had three preventable components.

First, the state unnecessarily disqualified a shipbuilder from the bidding process. The shipbuilder objected and time-consuming litigation ensued. It took a lawsuit to ensure state accountability.

Second, the state could not decide what size it wanted the new ferries to be. This displays a lack of vision.

Finally, the state balked, and considered repairing the Steel Electrics. Only recently was it determined to be the wrong approach. This process lacked the necessary leadership.

Our Steel Electrics have now been deemed unsafe and removed, which has left many people and small businesses in difficult situations.

The governor recently declared our ferry system a priority and said the time to act is now.

The truth is, the time to act was the day she stepped into office.

Now the governor is proposing to spend $100 million for three new, smaller ferries. The vessels would be financed by taking funds from the Mukilteo Terminal Project, in addition to the plan from 2003.

Her much-publicized blueprint ignores the failed previous one and repackages it as something new.

This illustrates the culture of failure in Olympia today — an entrenched system of incompetence that permeates state government in a number of areas. The evidence lies in the lack of answers to education funding, cost of health care, abuse of children in foster care, repeat sex offenders, and early-release felons without adequate supervision.

This culture of failure reacts only when a crisis is upon it. We need a state government that is proactive, not reactive.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct and Highway 520 bridge are other impending crises. Despite the largest gas-tax increase in state history in 2005, and promises to address these critical projects, the state still does not have viable plans in place.

We will continue to hear excuses for why our state is failing. Blame will be assigned to Tim Eyman, lack of funding, legal challenges, local governments, the federal government, and so on.

But please understand — we have the funding, good ideas to choose from and enough expertise within our state.

What we need is accountability, vision and leadership in Olympia. Until we have all of these elements, we can continue to expect broken promises — and a culture of failure — from state government.