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State ferry system needs
accountability, vision and leadership
Special to the Seattle Times
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
last 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 five cents in 2003. As ranking Republican on the House
Transportation Committee, and 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 ship builder from the bidding process. The
ship builder 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
only reacts when a crisis is upon it. We need a state government that is
proactive, not reactive.
The Alaskan Way Viaduct
and 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 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.
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