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Gregoire’s transportation
budget masks
failure to deliver on promises
Republican
lawmaker worries taxpayers were misled about funding plan
State Rep. Doug
Ericksen, R-Ferndale, is raising serious questions about the
stability of the state’s transportation budget and the potential
statewide impact of a $1 billion shortfall to complete projects promised
to the voters of Washington. The state has come up well short of the
funding needed complete the projects that were part of a 9.5-cent gas
tax package presented to voters in 2005, and Ericksen wants to know if
business leaders and taxpayers were misled.
“Just one year ago some leaders in Washington sold the people on a tax
increase based upon projects that would be built to relieve congestion,”
Ericksen said. “Now the governor is trying to gloss over the reality
that an additional $1 billion dollars is needed to actually build those
projects. A $1 billion overrun on a $5.6 billion project list should
raise serious questions about who knew of this shortfall and when they
knew it.
“The budget strategies employed by the governor to pay for promised
projects shortchanges the vast majority of the state,” Ericksen said.
“Fund balance transfers and irresponsible long-term bonding will hurt
our statewide transportation system in the future. The budget she
proposed does not help with many major projects like the SR 520 floating
bridge and takes future dollars away from needed projects in all parts
of the state.”
The governor’s budget proposal would transfer $200 million originally
earmarked for multi-modal funding, commit $400 million in revenue from
the state’s original 23-cent gas tax, and transfer hundreds of millions
from various other accounts to pay for the shortfall in revenue for
projects promised to taxpayers when the 9.5-cent gas tax increase was
approved by voters.
“You don’t borrow against future tax revenue and move money around from
one account to another without shortchanging communities and breaking
promises the state has made to improve their roads. The money has to
come from some other project that, as a result, will not get built,” he
said.
Ericksen also expressed concern that the governor has nearly tapped out
all available revenue by bonding heavily against future revenue.
“It leaves little future capacity or flexibility to respond to future
transportation needs,” he said.
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