Pierce County pours cold water on Regional Governance

Leaders face battle over highway plans

DAVID SEAGO; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: January 6th, 2008 01:00 AM

Let’s face it: The term “regional transportation governance” is a real snoozer. Couldn’t be wonkier.

But RTG, as I call it, involves big bucks, big power and the very future of the Puget Sound metro region. If you take the bus, ride a Sounder commuter train, drive I-5 or Highway 512 to work, RTG is about your life.

When Proposition 1, the massive roads-and-transportation tax package, cratered at the polls in November, a 2006 blue-ribbon panel’s RTG proposal sprang back to life.

Headed by former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice and Seattle telecom billionaire John Stanton, the panel recommended creating a single regional transportation board to rule all planning for transit and highway construction.

In its current incarnation, the board would consist of nine directly elected members and six appointed members, and it would have the authority to impose tolls and taxes.

RTG is a tough sell in Pierce County. But Stanton and another panel member, former state transportation secretary Doug MacDonald, are giving it a shot at Wednesday’s meeting of RAMP. The Regional Access Mobility Partnership is a coalition of Pierce County business, port and government officials that tries to form a countywide consensus on transportation issues.

Although it was hyperbolic, rude and, to my mind, embarrassing, a letter Pierce County Councilman (and county executive candidate) Shawn Bunney sent the governor in late November expressed widespread county sentiment about regional governance.

“The scene is set for another contrived feeding frenzy in the Legislature, which will leave Pierce County with crumbs,” Bunney cried.

He all but demanded a meeting with the governor to dispute “a Seattle-centric” view of the world. He accused Seattle legislators of “siphoning $700 million in gas taxes out of Pierce County” in the past 15 years.

Bunney unloaded both barrels on the Highway 520 bridge replacement project, which the governor has declared her top transportation priority.

“To say that the 520 Bridge is a ‘safety’ project does not accurately portray the planned gold-plated entrances to the Emerald City and Clyde Hill-Medina. Current plans include $100 million for bike and pedestrian lanes, $250 million for five new parks created to muffle bridge noise, $700-$800 million for parks and lids on the east side of the lake, and a 50 percent capacity increase.

“The only thing missing is a giant archway from which trumpets can blare as Ron Sims enters and exits Seattle.”

Immoderate, to be sure, but the letter was meant to be a warning shot to RTG advocates.

Bunney was chairman of the Regional Transportation Investment District, the panel of local elected officials who devised the roads portion of Proposition 1.

On Wednesday, the RAMP group is also supposed to consider three possible scenarios for addressing Pierce County highway needs. All are “go it alone,” rather than regional, approaches.

One would be a Regional Transportation Investment District with just Pierce County or with another county (perhaps Thurston). Another would be a countywide transportation benefit district. The third would be imposing a countywide local-option gas tax.

The RAMP group is supposed to discuss its legislative priorities Wednesday. The Legislature convenes Jan. 14.

We might see a split in RAMP’s ranks. Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, who has just stepped down as Sound Transit but still sits on the board, co-chairs RAMP. He has said he doesn’t favor a go-it-alone approach for Pierce County, but it’s not clear where he’ll come down on the governance issue.

Some transit advocates want to see the transit portion of Proposition 1 return to the ballot – separately – in November.

Another key RAMP player is Tacoma Port Director Tim Farrell. His overriding interest, presumably, is completion of Highway 167 from Puyallup to Interstate 5, a huge necessity for moving freight to and from the port. The county’s business community also strongly backs the project.

But the Highway 167 project, which is only a skimpy two-lane connector, is a $1 billion-plus job that would suck up most of the county’s local funding capacity. Completing it actually might be more likely under a regional funding scenario.

But who can tell? If the regional governance proponents have the upper hand in Olympia this year – and I think they may – it may not matter much what stand RAMP takes.

E-mail editorial page editor David Seago at david.seago@thenewstribune.com.

Tacoma Coalition sets outs local priorities for Roads

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Transportation: A local game plan?

Posted by David Seago @ 04:16:23 pm

A “go it alone” stance on new highway construction is favored in a legislative priority list Pierce County officials will consider Wednesday.

The final draft document, released today, calls for creating a new transportation benefit district – perhaps along with another county – to pay for big projects like extending SR 167 and building the Cross Base Highway.

The draft clearly rejects the idea of creating a regional Transportation Board to rule all transit and highway planning in the Puget Sound metro region. (See my Sunday column on a regional governance plan state lawmakers will consider this session.)

A coalition of county business and government leaders called RAMP will consider the proposed legislative priorities Wednesday. But first they will hear a pitch from top advocates of regional governance. The meeting will begin at 8 a.m. at the Fabulich Center (formerly the World Trade Center) at 3600 Port of Tacoma Road.

Here's what the draft says about creating a new taxing district:

RAMP believes that a Transportation Benefit District is the most viable vehicle for advancing towards the next voter-approved funding package, whether Pierce County moves forward unilaterally or in cooperation with other counties; consequently, RAMP asks the Legislature to grant TBDs authority allotted to the Regional Transportation Investment District, as well as removing the ten-year limitation on voter-approved tax collections

Click below to see the full document.

[More:]

Priorities
o RAMP believes that a Transportation Benefit District is the most viable vehicle for advancing towards the next voter-approved funding package, whether Pierce County moves forward unilaterally or in cooperation with other counties; consequently, RAMP asks the Legislature to grant TBDs authority allotted to the Regional Transportation Investment District, as well as removing the ten-year limitation on voter-approved tax collections
o RAMP maintains that transportation governance revisions are secondary to the provision of adequate financial resources for transportation (both roads and transit); to that end, RAMP will support Legislative goals and recommendations that make adequate financing their top priority
o RAMP believes that subarea equity is important for any regional transportation investment plan and will seek to maintain Pierce County's fair share of funding while working collaboratively with the rest of the region
o RAMP will work to ensure that projects funded within Pierce County via the 2003 Nickel package and the 2005 Transportation Partnership package are completed without delay

Projects
RAMP will work to develop regional, state and federal funding for the following priority transportation projects:
o SR-167 - RAMP seeks to secure full funding for this critical link from Puyallup to SR-509, including right-of-way acquisition for the full-width corridor, and supports high capacity vehicle lanes being added to the portion north of Sumner

o SR-704 - RAMP is an advocate for the construction of the “Cross-Base Highway” and believes that this transportation corridor should be renamed the “Armed Services Highway” to reflect the importance of the military and their families

o SR-162 - RAMP supports allocation of State funding to the SR-162 corridor between the City of Orting and SR-410 in such a manner and amount as to leverage the use of private funding being identified by the Plateau Transportation Partnership for transportation improvements

o Sound Transit - RAMP supports the following additions to regional transit services:
1. Connecting light rail from Tacoma Dome Station to SeaTac Airport
2. Contingency fund for ridership growth (e.g., additional parking, shuttle service, new stations, pedestrian facilities, signalization)
3. Extending Sounder service to DuPont
4. Expanding Sounder service to all-day or expanding express bus service to all-day
5. Linking downtown Tacoma to TCC via light rail
o Pierce Transit - RAMP supports completion of the Peninsula Park & Ride facility
o Rail Improvements - RAMP supports construction of grade separations that will serve Sounder, Tacoma Rail and Port of Tacoma infrastructure needs
o Regional Mobility Grant (WSDOT's Office of Transit Mobility) - RAMP supports funding for proposed Pierce County projects

Policies
In addition, RAMP supports transportation policies essential to our region's economic development, which include the following:

o RAMP supports the recommendations of the Washington Transportation Commission in its 2006 Comprehensive Tolling Study and believes that the state should use tolling to encourage effective use of the transportation system through congestion management as well as to provide a supplementary source of transportation funding; moreover, tolling represents the most direct way to charge system users for the cost of the highway system without singling out one specific class of user; however, RAMP believes transit should not be tolled or be subject to congestion pricing and that this should be reflected in the Transportation Commission's tolling policy.

o RAMP opposes cargo taxes that would hamper the state's competitiveness, driving economic activity from Washington to neighboring states and countries, and harming Washington ports, manufacturers, growers, and exporters: RAMP supports mechanisms for funding freight infrastructure that rely either on user fees or on general purpose taxes through which the broader community invests in freight mobility.

o RAMP supports financial incentives, such as tax credits, for new construction and infrastructure improvements on the state's rail lines

o RAMP supports allocation of all multimodal funds to public transportation and opposes any efforts to allocate federal transit funds to highway purposes.

o RAMP seeks full funding for the recommendations of the Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board (FMSIB) to improve freight mobility and the state's competitiveness

o RAMP supports keeping the state accountable for efficiencies in the construction of transportation projects by producing verifiable and quantifiable results through cost savings, project prioritization, benchmarks, planning and project streamlining