Gov. Chris Gregoire signed Washington's 2011-13 transportation budget yesterday. It spends $5.6 billion on road, bridge, rail and ferry projects over the next two years, including $72 million for the North Spokane Corridor, $15.8 million to widen Interstate 90 in the Spokane Valley, and $12 million to replace the Keller Ferry.
But the state will exhaust most of the money for big projects from gas tax increases approved by voters in 2003 and 2005, with some big projects like the North Spokane Corridor unfinished Gregoire said. Which is why she plans to ask voters for more money for transportation next year. The Spokesman-Review has the budget details.
2 comments:
Gregoire claims that the reason she's asking for more transportation money is because cars today get twice the gas mileage as they used to...aren't there also twice as many cars? I don't get the math there!
Thanks for the comment Jeff. There ARE a lot more cars, although I'm not sure the exact numbers. While more cars translate to more tax funds, they also mean more damage to the roads and more roads and other driving amenities that are needed (some people feel we don't need to provide more capacity and while we agree to a certain degree, congestion can be counterintuitive). All that translates to needing more money for transportation. There's also the issue that we've fallen behind on maintenance and preservation in the past and it's going to take a huge amount of money to dig out of that hole. Seems like a giant catch 22 huh?
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