Editor’s note: The Seattle Times editorial board video-recorded interviews with the four leading gubernatorial candidates.
Jump to videos: Semi Bird | Bob Ferguson | Mark Mullet | Dave Reichert
Washington’s next governor will face a simple yet vexing quandary in funding transportation: a vast backlog of increasingly costly projects — and nowhere near the money to pay for them all.
State lawmakers will likely stare down a new $1 billion shortfall in the new governor’s first term merely to keep pace on infrastructure promises made in previous legislative sessions. Costs keep climbing on everything from new interchanges to the Interstate 5 Columbia River bridge megaproject and within a $4 billion bevy of federally court-ordered culvert replacements to enhance salmon habitat. The state’s Transportation Department also estimates that highways, bridges and ferries around the state are billions of dollars behind on maintenance, to much of which lawmakers have yet to devote a dime.
Meanwhile, the way Washingtonians pay for transportation — mainly, a 49.4 cent tax on every gallon of gas — has become a flatlining and even declining source of revenue as remote work surged during the pandemic and more residents convert to electric vehicles.
“Of all things demanding the new governor’s attention, transportation is an issue they just can’t duck,” said Steve Mullin, chairman of the Washington Roundtable, a pro-business advocacy group.
The question is: Which of the candidates is best up to an unsexy but critically important pencil-sharpening exercise? The pitfalls to raising any new taxes or fees are obvious, as are delaying or cutting projects important to lawmakers and their constituents around the state.
The two leading Republicans, former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and recalled Richland school board member Semi Bird, are inviting an even more daunting task on ideological grounds: Both intend to vote to repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act this fall.
They criticize the act for increasing gas prices that most adversely affect lower income Washingtonians. The law established cap-and-trade auctions where the state’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters must buy credits to cover their emissions. The proceeds benefit renewable energy development, provide electric heat pump subsidies, cover transit fares for youth and more.
But ending the auctions, which are expected to raise $3.2 billion in the first three years, would compound the transportation shortfall and surely delay or even cancel work. And while cap-and-trade dollars don’t directly fund highways, lawmakers allocated them for green investments in ferry, transit and pedestrian projects that, without the auctions, would return to the competing queue for overall dollars.
To make up funding, Reichert and Bird advocate tapping into the state’s general fund, which provides for public education, social services and other priorities whose dollars ruling Democrats have long protected from going to transportation.
The leading Democrats, Attorney General Bob Ferguson and State Sen. Mark Mullet, argue cap-and-trade needs fine-tuning. Ferguson would fund tax credits for Washington’s most vulnerable residents. Mullet believes there weren’t enough credits auctioned off when the auctions launched, which resulted in their unexpectedly high price — a cost that has been passed on by oil companies to consumers at the gas pump. Though the number of credits auctioned ratchets down over time, he supports increasing their supply now to help keep gas prices from spiking.
Prices in recent auctions have fallen but that might be a sign auction participants are buying fewer credits because the entire market could be repealed at the ballot box.
Of the four contenders, Mullet is most bullish on finding new transportation revenue, arguing that doing so is critical for the state’s economy. The former currency trader was an instrumental yes vote in enacting cap-and-trade. He also expresses a willingness to tap the general fund for transportation projects. Among the solutions: sending sales tax revenues on cars or car products sold in Washington into the transportation account.
Ferguson noted to the editorial board he’s interested in how future funds will be collected as gas tax revenues continue their decline. With an eye toward the future, he sees a flat annual road maintenance fee as a possible replacement, and, unlike Gov. Jay Inslee, is supportive of a voluntary program for motorists willing to collect data for an eventual pay-per-mile road use charge.
The two Democrats blend a willingness to tackle climate change while restoring Washington’s infrastructure. The Republican candidates, while professing to protect Washington’s natural resources, not so much.
Bird advocates for tabula rasa: “Let’s just clean slate it,” he told the editorial board of axing the Climate Commitment Act. Reichert would push a “pause button” and says he’ll prioritize roads above all within the transportation budget, using an analogy of a house: “We haven’t fixed the leaky roof, and we’ve gone out and bought a new car.”
Speaking of leaky roofs, each of the governor candidates vowed to rebuild the dilapidated, shrunken fleet of Washington State Ferries, where even a single boat breakdown can cascade into a scramble of interrupted service across the system. All four expressed a willingness to detour from Inslee’s championed plan of building hybrid-electric boats for Washington State Ferries, if traditional diesel vessels could be built faster. But by January, when a new occupant has moved into the governor’s mansion, the transportation department is expecting bids for construction. The governor’s challenge on ferries will be restoring levels of service. Even if lawmakers’ $1.3 billion can stretch to cover the five new vessels, it’s likely a handful of boats long overdue for retirement will decommission — meaning the system is just treading water on the diminished service levels of today. The ferries’ long-range plans call for 16 new boats by 2040 — another funding headache for the new governor.
Ferguson also pledged as governor to keep a closer eye on ferries, including a proposal to make the current assistant transportation secretary in charge of them part of his cabinet. He equated the sorry shape of the fleet to the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge in 2013, and said he would “articulate this is a crisis” in “everyday conversation” as governor.
But the vote on Initiative 2117, which repeals the Climate Commitment Act, hangs over it all. How a new governor and the Legislature would find additional money is an open question. Republicans, including Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, suggested lawmakers might need to turn to a gas tax increase should cap-and-trade be repealed and the transportation budget summarily decimated.
Really? Brian Heywood’s drive for signatures to repeal the Climate Commitment Act was spurred by anger over gas prices. The legislative solution would be … raising them? Geoducks would sooner grow wings.
For Bird and Reichert, repealing the Climate Commitment Act in the name of affordability might be a winning sound bite, but it could also disfigure entirely both plans to grow Washington’s clean energy economy while also helping dig out of a backlog of projects and maintenance. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, after all. But that road needs to be repaved.
Watch: Semi Bird’s approach to transportation
“Instead of patchworking (The Climate Commitment Act) let’s just clean slate it and let’s just redo something that works for everyone.”
Watch: Bob Ferguson’s approach to transportation
“I support the Climate Commitment Act, but I’ve been clear that there are some fixes … to improve on it.”
Watch: Mark Mullet’s approach to transportation
“We’ve got (The Climate Commitment Act) in place; I would rather see it stay there but just run with a lens of affordability.”
Watch: Dave Reichert’s approach to transportation
“We have gone full steam ahead, so to speak, into this ‘protect-the-environment’ world. But at the same time, we … are hurting the progress of our state.”
