Feds Will Keep Transportation Funding on Track

It appears that highway and transit funding will remain at levels guaranteed in the most recent federal highway bill (SAFETEA-LU) and won’t face the cuts coming for many other programs. While Congress is set to cut over 60 programs below FY 2006 levels and rescind unobligated balances, providing roughly $10 billion in savings, the Federal-aid highway program is fully funded at the level guaranteed in SAFETEA-LU and the Federal Transit Administration will be granted $8.97 billion for programs, an increase of $470 million to meet the transit funding guarantees as required by SAFETEA-LU.

Legislation adopted by the House of Representative today to fund the government through September 30th (the end of the fiscal year) fully funds surface transportation programs as noted above. Support for full funding is even stronger in the Senate.

RAMP was among the groups nationwide who urged Congress to keep funding at levels promised in SAFETEA-LU.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

RTID Approves Roads Package

Submitted by Paul Ellis

On Friday the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) approved the revised Blueprint for Progress, a preliminary plan for major road and bridge improvements in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties. This package will comprise the roads portion of the Roads & Transit plan that will be submitted to the region's voters on the November ballot.

Projects supported by RAMP--completion of SR-167, construction of SR-704 (the Cross-Base Highway), and widening of SR-162--were included in the proposal adopted on Friday. RAMP participants P.J. McDonald (Fife Chamber) and John Austin (Toray Composites), as well as staff team member Sean Egan, spoke in favor of the Cross-Base Highway--which continues to face opposition from some members of the environmental community.

RTID also took action to increase funding for the SR-520 bridge replacement by $300 million (for a total regional contribution of $1.1 billion), funding new capacity for a six-lane bridge proposal. The RTID district boundary was also approved.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

Pained at the Pump?

Submitted by Paul Ellis

In Tuesday evening's State of the Union address to Congress, President George Bush called for development and production of fuels and automobiles that would decrease the use of oil in the United States by 20 percent during the next 10 years. While that may be good news for the environment, Governing's Christopher Swope observes that it will make the pinch for transportation funding even more acute.

Remove 20 percent of the $35 billion collected nationwide each year for transportation projects, Swope calculates, and local, state and federal governments will be short $7 billion. "Add to that the reluctance of state legislators to allow gas taxes to keep pace with inflation," he continues, "and you have a tax that is no longer viable for the modern world of politics and environmental policy."

Swope foresees three possible ways to make up the revenue that decreased oil consumption might defer:

• Use new technology to levy taxes by the mile rather than by the gallon (Oregon is already testing this idea);
• Develop partnerships with the private sector to get new roads built;
• Impose a lot more toll roads across the country, whether they're run by the states or by private vendors.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

Putting the Weight on Freight

Submitted by Paul Ellis

Washington State Senator Mary Margaret Haugen--chair of the Transportation Committee--has a problem, and it's a big one. Transportation leaders have long been calling for funding for improvements they say are needed to keep cargo moving through the state, and--despite big boosts in gas tax revenues won in past Legislative sessions--the funding gap for those improvements keeps growing. Haugen has dropped SB5207, imposing a $50 tax on each 20-foot-equivalent (a measure of cargo container capacity) containers moving through the state’s ports.

“We’re looking for money to do the freight projects that the ports and freight people talk about,” Haugen recently told The News Tribune. “This is the way we’ve come up with to pay for it. We asked them to suggest a different way--or they could cut their projects.”

While the tax would raise an estimated $287 million for freight congestion relief projects in this biennium, RAMP opposes its imposition. Port officials and maritime business leaders worry that such a charge might drive cargo away from Washington ports to Canada, California and Oregon. Last year, the Port of Tacoma lost business to Southern California after a railroad operator negotiated higher rates with one of the shipping lines.

Shippers don’t think about the value of the goods in a container, but instead how much it costs to move a box. It now costs about $200 to move a container through the Port of Tacoma; add $100 to that cost--most containers are 40 feet long--and the cost rises to $300. More than 70 percent of the international cargo that came through the Port of Tacoma in 2005 left for the Midwest on a train and could be shipped through other ports, so the proposed container tax would have a negative effect on business here.

Although this particular effort is misguided, Senator Haugen's problem is very real, and RAMP shares the responsibility for seeking a solution.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

For Whom the (Additional) Roads Toll

Submitted by Paul Ellis

Governor Christine Gregoire wants the Washington State Legislature to approve a two million dollar public-private partnership. Contractors would submit proposals later this year and the Department of Transportation would evaluate them next year.

The governor's proposal builds upon the Comprehensive Tolling Study released last fall by the Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) and reviewed by RAMP at its September and November meetings. The 2007 Legislative Priorities adopted by RAMP support findings of the study and advocate use of tolling to support congestion management as well as to provide a supplementary source of transportation funding.

Projects could include widening I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass, a new Columbia River bridge at Vancouver, and a replacement span for SR-520 across Lake Washington. The Comprehensive Tolling Study vets these projects as likely to return enough revenue to fiance the investment; other projects like SR-704 and the Alaskan Way Viaduct were not deemed cost effective.

The governor’s request is a revival of the program that led to construction of the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge; at that time, the bridge project was one of six public-private projects under consideration. Five others--including replacing the SR-520 floating bridge across Lake Washington--were dropped or removed from the final list.

Tolling provides an important tool to optimize the use of existing transportation infrastructure and also raise much-needed revenue for mega projects. It is fair to taxpayers because the users of the improvement--those who derive the most benefit--help pay for the improvement.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

Green Light for ST2 Package

Submitted by Paul Ellis

Sound Transit today adopted a draft planning package, including extension from SeaTac to the Port of Tacoma, that would construct more than 40 new miles of light rail. Other proposed expansions would extend light rail north from the University of Washington to Lynnwood and east as far as Redmond’s Overlake Transit Center via downtown Bellevue. These and other proposed projects in the draft package are projected to increase the number of people who use the regional transit system to more than 350,000 by 2030.

Sound Transit will seek more public input during February and March before adopting a final package that will go to the voters in November as part of the regional Roads & Transit package. In addition to the light rail expansions, the draft package:

• Adds parking and other enhancements at Sounder commuter rail and ST Express bus facilities;
• Sets aside funding for future service enhancements to existing ST Express bus routes; and
• Identifies further light rail extensions in downtown Redmond and downtown Tacoma subject to securing unanticpated additional funding or cost savings during construction of other parts of the package (the package provides up-front funding for planning, engineering and property acquisition for these extensions).

The draft package would be funded with a sales tax increase of 0.5 percent--five cents on a $10 retail purchase; the increase would cost a typical household approximately $125 each year.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

RTC: Dead On Arrival?

Submitted by Paul Ellis

Although the group internally has differences of opinion, the Regional Transportation Commission is reportedly ready to release its final report with the recommendation that existing Puget Sound transportation agencies should be replaced by one regional board that would choose which highway and transit projects get built.

A bold recommendation, but is it necessary? While the report explores at length the problem of scattered decision-making, it doesn't cite any specific mistakes. Based on past unhappy experience, decision-makers outside King County can be expected to be gun shy about the term "regional"--it usually means "Seattle and the East Side" more than anything else.

State representative Dennis Flannigan, who sits on the House Transportation Committee, told RAMP participants last week that he believes the RTC recommendations will be "DOA" this Session. Senate Transportation Committee Chair Mary Margaret Haugen told The Seattle Times that she likes the suggestions and that Legislative leaders are already working on a bill. Who's right?

Maybe it's a moot point, anyway. Any reforms would likely come after November's expected Roads & Transit ballot measure, which would set in motion billions of dollars in projects picked by the Sound Transit and the Regional Transportation Investment District boards--agencies the RTC suggests replacing with the new regional body. Won't the likely result of this watershed opportunity be to "wait and see" until after November?

By the way, the report will not be released until later this month, but a copy has been posted online by John Niles, a Seattle supporter of bus rapid transit.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

RAMP Adopts 2007 Legislative Agenda

Submitted by Paul Ellis

As Tacoma-Pierce County’s primary coalition for transportation issues, RAMP will clearly advance the area’s consensus regarding transportation projects, policies and priorities:

Projects
RAMP will work to develop regional, state and federal funding for the following priority transportation projects:

• 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 corridor, and supports high capacity vehicle lanes being added to the portion north of Sumner
• SR-704 – RAMP is an advocate for the construction of the so-called “Cross-Base Highway” and also believes the name of this transportation corridor should reflect the importance of the military and the contributions of its members and their families: Armed Services Highway
• SR-162 – RAMP supports funding for improvements to this overburdened arterial serving the fastest-growing portion of East Pierce County
• 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
• Pierce Transit – RAMP supports completion of the Peninsula Park & Ride facility timed to open with the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge
• Rail Improvements – RAMP supports construction of grade separations that will serve Sounder, Tacoma Rail and Port of Tacoma infrastructure needs
• 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:

• 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
• 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 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
• RAMP seeks full funding for the recommendations of the Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board (FMSIB) to improve mobility and the state’s competitiveness
• 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
• RAMP supports technical changes that may be necessary to adjust benefit area boundaries or make other changes to enable the Roads & Transit package to be presented to voters in November

Priorities

• RAMP maintains that governance revisions are secondary to the provision of adequate financial resources; to that end, RAMP will support Legislative goals and recommendations that make adequate financing their top priority
• 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

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.

China Plans to Build More Highways in 2007

Submitted by Paul Ellis

According to China Daily, China will build at least 5,000 kilometers of expressways next year, bringing the total length of expressways in the nation to over 50,000 kilometers by the end of 2007. The Asian nation currently has 45,400 kilometers of expressways, the second most in the world after the United States, and plans to have 85,000 kilometers of expressways by 2020. By comparison, the United States had 90,000 kilometers in 2005.

China's burgeoning growth is often cited as a major factor driving the precipitous rise of highway projects locally and worldwide. Since the summer of 2003, prices for wood, concrete, steel and other basic materials have escalated largely due to classic supply-and-demand economics--with a huge portion of the demand coming from China.

It doesn't look like this curve will flatten anytime soon...

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.