Dear friends and neighbors,

We recently rolled out our $16 Billion MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON transportation package that creates a sustainable, achievable future for our transportation sector.

I encourage you to watch my video update below for a very quick overview of the package, to also watch this KATU story where I was interviewed on this topic yesterday, and to continue reading this newsletter for more detailed information.

MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON is a transformational 16-year transportation package that delivers historic investments to preserve our roads, reduce carbon emissions, and provide safe, accessible, and affordable options to get around.

As packages go, it is quite different from its predecessors.  Transportation projects involve many years of planning by multiple entities, and millions of dollars of public money. Over last year’s interim, as vice chair of the Transportation Committee, I participated in more than 100 stakeholder meetings with people all over the state to learn about their needs, preferences for funding sources, changes needed, and priorities. Many of the folks and organizations we reached out to had never been asked for their input before.

Here are some of the things they told us:

• “Preservation and maintenance should be a much higher priority.  Everyone wants projects but taking care of what we have sooner rather than later is desperately needed.”

MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON makes an unprecedented investment in taking care of our roads and bridges.

• “The projects that started in the last package and were impacted by reductions in funding from the pandemic must be finished, even as they may have become more complex and expensive.”

MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON uses revenue that was not affected by the pandemic to keep these projects on track.

• “The new money from the Carbon Tax last year should be spent reducing carbon.”

MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON devotes resources from that new money to a robust public transportation system that reduces carbon and works for more people than ever before.

• “Even the trucking world wants a solid public transit system. It helps people and keeps freight moving better.”

MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON addresses the need to move goods to market. Freight is important to our state as the most export-dependent state in the country. Bridges like the ones over the Columbia and Hood Rivers are essential to commerce and commuters.

We heard agreement that:

• “Front-line communities have been negatively impacted by past transportation policies, pollution, and have not been part of the jobs benefit of those policies. Fairness demands we do better.”

We made some progress with equity in the 2021 operating budget.  We’re doing more this year, including: reducing pollution, expanding our apprenticeship and training programs, expanding access to contracts and improving our human resources practices, as well as including communities in the decisions on major projects and design.

• “We are under court order to fix the culverts that block fish passage. “

Doing the right thing is reflected in the money devoted to this important task. It costs money to fix infrastructure and apply what we know to secure our salmon runs. This is included in the package.

• “The time to act on climate change is past due”.

From the smallest community to the largest, from government to business, the need for action that addresses climate change and equity was expressed strongly in these conversations. MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON sets us firmly on that path.

• “Getting it done is so important, we must be willing to generate money to do it.  Gas tax is the easiest to administer but coming out of a pandemic and uncertain economic period may not be the right time”.

Most transportation packages increase and bond the gas tax revenue stream of a 15-year or more period of time. We used already allocated money from projects finished and under budget to build much of what is in the package.  We decided to focus on critical needs without increasing gas taxes and to do more on preservation and maintenance.

We don’t fully know what the long-term effect of the pandemic will be on how we use our transportation system and roads. What we do know is that people are hurting right now, and we need to make this package as focused and frugal as possible, while still addressing our needs.

There were people in our conversations that were impatient with not being able to move faster to a ‘miles-traveled’ way of paying for our roads. Phasing-in a per-mile charge to pay for roads will be the fair thing as more cars are hybrid or fully electric. We are conducting pilot projects and studies so that when such a method of funding roads is phased-in it will be fair and work well.  Big changes take time and effort.

We’re MOVING AHEAD with the Bridge, too!

I’ve been working hard to push forward efforts to replace the Interstate 5 bridge since before I was even elected to the House. Over several years, I teamed-up with my seatmates and with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to successfully make the replacement of the I-5 bridge a project of statewide significance.

I’m so proud that MOVE AHEAD WASHINGTON includes $1 Billion to fully fund our state’s portion of a new bridge over the Columbia River! This amount will be matched by money from the federal government and our neighboring state, Oregon, when the new preferred alternative is known.

Thank you for reading this report. I hope this information on the transportation package is useful. I will continue letting you know how things are going in my video updates and e-newsletters, as well as through social media posts on Facebook.

As always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact my office.

                                   Sincerely,