WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

‘Don’t play petty games with $79 million,’ Moeller urges

The federal government isn’t kidding around at all about the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project. In view of that very clear and present fact, Washington state Rep. Jim Moeller is calling on his fellow lawmakers to wake up and smell the huge cup of financial coffee at stake.

“We need to take very seriously the April 19th letter from federal highway officials regarding a potential demand for repayment of financial help in building a new bridge,” Moeller said. “Don’t play petty games with $79 million in federal funding already advanced to our state for this extremely important project.

“Folks who think they want to ‘play chicken’ with the feds on this thing had better think again,” he added. “Quality of home and family life for our Clark County families and quantity of profit dollars for our Clark County businesses are on the line here.”

In their letter last month to Washington and Oregon state-transportation officials, two regional federal-highway administrators warned that Uncle Sam might well demand repayment of big money sent to Olympia and Salem. That’s why the two Pacific Northwest states must either get the project going by next spring, or possibly face very unpleasant financial consequences.

Moeller is a leading Columbia River Crossing proponent. A member of the Washington state House Transportation Committee, Moeller has worked furiously to assemble both legislative and gubernatorial support for building the new bridge.

Oregon legislators are ahead of their Washington-state counterparts in fact, having already moved forward with crossing funding. Along with putting together the Evergreen State’s new operating and capital budgets, work in the special legislative session remains to be done on establishing a package of transportation-project funding.

“It’s understandable that the tempers of Clark County motorists and businesses are burning while Senate Republicans are fiddling around on the CRC issue,” Moeller emphasized.