Olympia’s special session ends with no action on transportation

The special session ended Wednesday without any action on funding for transportation as lawmakers got out of town after passing a short term fix for the operating budget.  Even so, there were considerable advances around the transportation revenue discussion as the Governor’s Connecting Washington Taskforce wrapped up this week.

The taskforce, which comprises nearly three dozen locally elected officials, members of state legislative transportation committees, tribal members, organized labor, trade associations, businesses, and TCC’s board member Barbara Wright was tasked with reviewing statewide transportation needs, recommending the most promising investment options and revenue sources to address top priorities.

The taskforce recommends a 10 year investment package of $21 billion, which will come from a variety of revenue resources, including; the gas tax, weight fees, emission fees, and a variety of local options.  The proportionality of how the revenue will be spent is yet to be negotiated, but the group agreed that operations and maintenance should be the number one priority for investment, fix it first.

After the last meeting, the group is working to finalize a report that will be delivered to the legislature before the end of the year.  The Governor plans to present her transportation revenue package in mid-January, as the regular session gets underway. In summation, this is a good first step on framework, there is still a lot of work to be done, and the devil is in the details in terms of projects and WSDOT spending priorities.

Update on Complete Streets!

Last year TCC led the effort to pass a Complete Streets bill in Olympia.  Since then, WSDOT has initiated a Grant Program that would provide a funding source for Complete Streets and Main Street Highways projects.  Seee the report that they delivered to the legislature.Within this effort they also published a Complete Streets report with case studies and practice resources.  It is a nice report that details Complete Streets efforts around the State.  Now that a program has been developed, WSDOT is ready for state investment in the program.