$12.6 billion regional plan unveiled for roads, transit

King County Executive Ron Sims and his counterparts from Snohomish and Pierce counties yesterday unveiled a mammoth, $12.6 billion regional transportation-improvement package aimed at the November ballot.

Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel called the proposal "a point of departure" for discussions within and among the three counties' councils, which will decide what, if anything, to place before voters this fall.

If it makes the ballot, the executives' 10-year package might be the most expensive proposal ever put before the region's voters. It dwarfs the $3.9 billion Sound Transit plan they approved in 1996 and the $6.7 billion package they rejected a year earlier.

But Sims said such a large investment is needed to address "a growing sense of rage that nothing is being done."

More than one-third of the total — about $5 billion — would go for three King County "mega-projects": replacing Seattle's seismically suspect Alaskan Way Viaduct and adding capacity to the Eastside's congested Interstate 405 and the Highway 520/Evergreen Point Floating Bridge corridor.

But county officials acknowledged even that large amount won't cover the total cost of all the work many say needs to be done to the three highways, even when combined with money in a statewide transportation package that's already on the November ballot.

The executives' package also includes:

• Nearly $1 billion to extend Sound Transit's proposed light-rail line north from the University District to Northgate and south from Tukwila to South 200th Street in SeaTac.

• $1.17 billion in Snohomish County road improvements.

• More than $1 billion for new buses and bus service, including "bus rapid transit" projects — buses that operate more like trains.

• $160 million to extend Sound Transit's "Sounder" commuter-rail line north from Seattle to Everett, and south from Tacoma to DuPont, Pierce County.

All this would be paid for by raising the sales tax — 0.5 percent in King County, 0.4 percent in the other two — imposing a 0.4 percent motor-vehicle excise tax and a $75 annual vehicle-license fee, and charging tolls on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, I-405 and Highway 520.

Tax money raised in each county would be spent in that county, the executives said.

Tolls are necessary and appropriate on the three projects for which they are proposed, Sims said: "What we're capable of doing with taxes alone is insufficient."

Ron Posthuma, King County's deputy transportation director, said officials assumed, for planning purposes, that tolls of about $1 would be charged on all vehicles on the viaduct and Highway 520, and on single-occupant vehicles whose drivers wish to share a "hot lane" with transit and carpools on I-405.

It's been less than two months since the Legislature authorized the three counties to prepare a regional package for voter approval. Sims was among those who originally said that left too little time to get a plan ready for November.

Others suggested that, with the statewide package and other tax measures already on the ballot, voters might feel overwhelmed by new taxes and be more inclined to vote against the regional plan.

But Sims said yesterday there was no time to waste.

"You cannot tell people sitting in congestion that we'll have another year of planning," he said.

Voters know the issues, Sims said, and more delay would only serve to confirm suspicions about government's inability to listen and act.

What's more, Drewel added, polls show that if a regional package isn't on the ballot the statewide plan is less likely to pass. The state package would raise $7.7 billion, mostly for roads, largely by increasing the gas tax by 9 cents a gallon.

Reaction to the executives' plan was mixed.

"I like it. I think it's significant that there's $1 billion in there for light rail," said Metropolitan King County Councilman Dwight Pelz, D-Seattle, one of six council members from the three counties who will meet today to discuss the next steps.

The rail money helps to counterbalance the emphasis on roads in the statewide package, he said.

But the executives' plan drew fire from State Sen. Dan McDonald, R-Yarrow Point, chief sponsor of the bill that authorized the regional plan. It doesn't provide enough money for I-405, he said.

The proposal calls for $1.45 billion for the Eastside freeway, including $500 million from tolls, plus more than $300 million for bus rapid transit along the corridor.

"Good Lord! That's not going to do anything. That's just a gesture," McDonald said.

Last November a regional-planning committee endorsed adding two general-purpose lanes and several bus ramps to I-405 from Woodinville to Tukwila, at an expected cost of around $8 billion.

The statewide and regional plans combined would provide less than half that amount.

Metropolitan King County Councilman Rob McKenna, R-Bellevue, said the 405 committee had been hoping for $3 billion in the regional package. He said the executives' plan appeared too weighted toward Seattle.

Sims defended the smaller allocation for I-405. He said improvements could be built in phases. "There isn't a lot of regional enthusiasm for all of the investment going to that corridor, " he said.

Sims and Drewel called McDonald's bill an imperfect tool. It limits most new spending to capital improvements associated with major state highways, and requires that projects be resubmitted to voters if they exceed cost estimates by more than 20 percent.

Those restrictions posed challenges, the executives said. But "we strongly believe this is not the time to wait for the perfect," Drewel said.

Sims said the 20 percent restriction would be addressed by stating official project costs as a range, not a specific number. Attorneys say that approach is legal, he said.

McKenna, a light-rail critic, questioned the decision by Sims, Drewel and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg to include light-rail extensions to Northgate and South 200th Street in the plan. "The inclusion of Sound Transit may end up making the package too controversial," he said.

Sound Transit's light-rail efforts have been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

The agency had planned to build a 21-mile line from the University District to South 200th, but last year scaled back to a 14-mile line from downtown Seattle to Tukwila.

But Sims said surveys show that, without light-rail extensions, the regional package probably wouldn't fare as well at the polls.

He also said the agency can find money from other sources to extend light rail north from downtown to the University District.

Environmentalists offered mixed reviews of the executives' plan.

"There's some good stuff in there, and some pretty bad stuff in there," said Peter Hurley of the pro-transit Transportation Choices Coalition.

He and John Healy of the anti-sprawl group 1000 Friends of Washington praised the executives for finding money for more transit, despite what they said was the state legislation's pro-roads tilt.

But both said they oppose using sales-tax money — traditionally a revenue source for transit — for roads. And both expressed concern that some road projects in Snohomish and Pierce counties could promote sprawl.

Mike Vaska, a Seattle lawyer who has represented the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce on transportation issues, said the executives should be commended for "trying to give the county councils a kick-start."

But he said the councils shouldn't rule out putting off a vote on new taxes until next year. "We want to get moving, but we also don't want to get out ahead of ourselves," Vaska said.

The state Department of Transportation hasn't yet decided whether to build a new, elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct or put the highway underground, he noted. And the regional measure could face "a pile-up at the polls" in November, Vaska said.

Bellevue Mayor Connie Marshall disagreed.

"I think it's incredibly important to the vitality of the region to have both the state and regional package on the ballot at the same time," she said. "I'm actually excited there's momentum."

Eric Pryne can be reached at 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com; Mike Lindblom can be reached at 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com.