Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously injured in the I-5 Skagit River bridge collapse. This is a reminder of how important it is to invest in critical infrastructure. It will be a jobs-generating move for our economy.
Check out this piece by John Stang of Crosscut.
Economists and engineers have jumped into overdrive to deal with last Thursday’s collapse of part of Interstate 5’s Skagit River Bridge. But politically, it is difficult to say if the incident will have any effects on a state legislators wrestling with transportation budget deadlocks.
The collapse has renewed political jousting between Democrats and Republicans, who were already deadlocked over whether the state’s transportation budget needs extra gas taxes of 10 cents per gallon spread across four years — a key part of the Democratic House’s $8.4 billion transportation revenue package.
Republicans object to the tax plan and they have vehemently opposed current plans for replacing the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River, while Democrats support that replacement. Washington has to provide $450 million — which is being blocked by the Republican-oriented Washington Senate — to have already-committed support from Oregon and the federal government kick in to cover the rest of the $3.5 billion price tag.