Seattle to Pay Billions for RTID

Let's kick things off with a story from the Seattle P-I about the Regional Transportation Investment District.

So what is the Regional Transportation Investment District and why should you care about it?

Because the RTID will have a huge say in how and even if the Alaskan Way Viaduct is replaced.

It will also help decide whether drivers will soon see tolls again on the Lake Washington bridges.

And it will soon be asking people in Seattle and throughout the Puget Sound area to pay billions of dollars in new taxes to fix the viaduct and other major transportation projects.

They are the biggest of the big-ticket items: Paying part of the cost of replacing the viaduct and the 520 bridge; widening Interstate 405 and state Route 167; and helping connect state Route 509 to Interstate 5.

So in order to get some maintenance and a few improvements, we in the Seattle area are going to be on the hook for billions more in taxes. Are you aware how much money the State currently collects in transportation taxes? According to documents on Joint Transportation Committee website, $1.4 billion flows into State coffers each year in transportation taxes. And what does 1.4 billion per year buy? Apparently not a whole lot. Hence the RTID.

I find myself somewhat conflicted about the RTID. I'm not inherently against the idea, but I am somewhat suspicious as to whether involving yet another government agency will somehow lead to my money being better spent. Consider these "guiding principles" taken from the RTID's Blueprint for Progress:

• Any proposal must significantly improve traffic flow and mobility in major corridors in all three counties.
• The roads portion of a regional transportation package should be fully integrated with the potential transit package currently under review by Sound Transit as part of its proposed Phase 2 investments (Sound Transit 2).

See, I'm totally on board with that first one. We need to make significant improvements to traffic flow and mobility. But, what's the deal with road improvements being "fully integrated" into Sound Transit? Sound Transit has yet to demonstrate any ability to "significantly improve traffic flow and mobility." Those two principles seems to be at odds with each other.

So what do you think about the RTID? Is it really necessary? How much deeper into your pockets are you willing to reach to fund these projects?

(Larry Lange, Seattle P-I, 03.10.2006)