Kitsap reps stick by controversial gas tax

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Appleton, Woods agree that repeal would hurt transportation. (First of two parts)

As Kitsap resident and small business owner Mike Gillespie fills up his Ford F-150 truck with a fresh tank of gas at an area Chevron station, he’s troubled by the high price he’s paying at the pump – thanks to a convergence of high oil prices and increased taxes.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Gillespie, who owns Sound Builders. “We’re taxed to death in this state. It’s tough to even make a living now. I love Washington, but I’m thinking of moving.”

On the opposite side of the station, Marti Lewis of Bremerton, who is capping off her Lexus RX 300, is also baffled by the skyrocketing cost of fuel.

However, she believes the higher price will help fix the state’s deteriorating road infrastructure.

“I don’t like paying the tax,” she said. “But we need the roads. Look around you – we need new highways, new roadways.”

So begins what is likely to be the most controversial issue on the November 2005 ballot.

Voters will be asked to decide the fate of a massive $8.5 billion transportation package, approved by the Legislature this year, that would increase the gas tax by 9.5 cents over four years.

A “yes” vote on Initiative 912, – certified for the ballot Aug. 8 when more than 400,000 signatures were turned into Secretary of State Sam Reed’s office – would repeal the tax and cancel many slated transportation projects, including ones in Kitsap County.

A “no” vote supports the legislature’s decision to renovate much of the state’s road infrastructure, including Seattle “mega-projects,” the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the floating 520 bridge, as well as a plethora of Kitsap highway and ferry revamps.

Adding to the confusion is the signing of a federal highway and mass transit bill passed by the national Congress and signed by President George W. Bush at the end of July. The $286.4 billion package includes $4 billion for Washington state.

Pay here

The gas tax was approved by the state House of Representatives on the last day – indeed nearing the last hour of the 2005 session – by a 54-43 margin.

Eleven Republicans, including 23rd district Representative Beverly Woods (R-Kingston), the ranking Republican on the Transportation committee that created the gas tax package, joined an almost unanimous Democratic majority in passing the increase.

Gov. Christine Gregoire signed the 16-year transportation plan into law soon after.

The first hike of the legislature’s approved measure was 3 cents and occurred back in July, taking the gas tax from 28 cents per gallon to 31 cents.

It will increase three more cents next year, two more cents the year after, and a 1.5 cents in 2008. Weight fees to vehicles are also slated to increase, and will do so regardless of I-912’s result this November.

Rising gas prices at the pump are adding salt to the I-912 supporters’ wounds over the issue. As of Aug. 12, the price of a barrel of oil reached an all-time high at $67, and the price for a gallon of gas is now hovering above $2.50 in the state.

An immediate backlash to the Legislature’s package came just days after the Legislature adjourned. In the next few months, gatherers turned in around 400,000 signatures – well over the 224,880 required – to the Secretary of State’s office.

Kitsap County Republican Party chair Matthew Cleverley said he was amazed by the number of volunteer calls he has received to help with signature gathering, saying he had more than 500 requests.

“It was kind of like a tsunami,” Cleverley said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”

He referred to the gas tax hike as the legislator’s “dream list,” and argued that none of the improvements the gas tax will fund will “help people get from point A to point B.”

“What you’re seeing is frustration on the part of the voters,” Cleverley said. “That the Legislature is out seeking its own empire-building projects not because it ought to, but because it wants to.”

Rep. Woods said that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“We looked at safety, we looked at structure, and we looked at capacity,” Woods said of her work on the transportation committee. “And we said, ‘These are things we can’t wait any longer to improve.’”

Fix…but how?

One thing I-912 proponents and opponents alike seem to agree upon is the need to fix and maintain Washington’s road infrastructure.

But Cleverley said that years of bad planning by the Washington Department of Transportation and the state government have caused traffic congestion, which he said the gas tax won’t ease.

“Our roads, certainly in Kitsap County, are horrible,” he said. “Our traffic is bad and needs to be fixed. But this is a kind of band-aid approach.”

Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) agrees, but said transportation woes can wait no longer to be resolved. But she also feels the Legislature must do the right thing – either way, they’ll be criticized.

“If you’re going to repeal the gas tax how else would you (fix the transportation problems)?” Appleton questioned. “What would your idea be? The roads will just get worse, then we’ll get blamed for not doing anything about it.”

“We all hear traffic, traffic, traffic – that’s the problem,” North End Kitsap County Commissioner Chris Endresen said. “I would be interested to hear the (I-912 proponents’) alternative.”

Another myth, Appleton and Woods say, is that the rest of the state, sans Seattle, won’t benefit from the tax hike.

Indeed, the gas tax hike gives $972 million to the eastside leg of I-405 in Seattle, about $500 million to replacing the 520 bridge across Lake Washington and $2 billion to the Alaskan Way Viaduct project.

But that leaves around $5 billion for everything else: guard-rail improvements, some 180 bridge retrofits, and repaving projects across the state, all of which will be in jeopardy if I-912 passes, Appleton said.

King County must also foot almost $1 billion itself in order to complete the viaduct project.

“If they do not pass a regional transportation package, then (the money) comes back, and we may choose to put it in other projects,” Woods said. “In other words, I wanted a little hammer over their heads.”

Appleton said that should the viaduct – the state’s main thoroughfare from all points east to the Port of Seattle – collapse, there would be economic implications as well.

“The bottom line is we’re going to have to do this,” she said. “It’s going to be now at this point, or later at a greater price.”

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At stake in Kitsap

Should Initiative 912 pass this fall, Kitsap County’s motorists would see the gas tax repealed, thus saving an eventual 9.5 cents per gallon by 2008. However, it would jeopardize these area projects:

• New east half of the Hood Canal Bridge ($162.1 million)

• Revamps and additions at the Bainbridge Ferry Terminal ($81.3 million)

• Seismic retrofits for certain bridges (state total, $57 million)

• Safety studies for the 104 corridor of State Route 307 ($5 million)

• New guard rails and safety measures on State Routes 3, 104 and 307 ($2.9 million)

• Addition of a passing lane and two-way left turn lane on State Route 3 from Imperial Way to Sunnyslope to increase safety ($2.5 million)