Another version of road vs. rail

Another version of a regional transportation-improvement package hit the street yesterday, signaling what could be the biggest issue in writing the plan -- roads vs. transit.

King County Councilman Dwight Pelz proposed concentrating spending in a $6.2 billion plan for King County on major highway projects, including replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, expanding I-405 and replacing the Evergreen Point Bridge.

But the Democrat insisted that any package must include money to extend Sound Transit's light rail system north of downtown Seattle and south of Sea-Tac Airport, to South 200th Street.

Displeased by a Republican councilman's list of highway priorities last week, Pelz said any plan submitted to voters must contain a higher percentage of transit improvements such as light rail if it's to succeed.

"Polls I see show voters more supportive of transit investments than road investments," Pelz said after releasing his proposals. "Voters don't think we can build our way out of gridlock."

Pelz's package included $6.2 billion for major projects such as the viaduct, 405 and 520, but proposes spending just $500 million on the new Highway 509 connection between the airport and Interstate 5.

It also would cut out some of the money for freeway approaches, high-use roads and signal-synchronization work but would allocate $1.2 billion for light rail expansion, slightly more than what executives of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties had proposed.

Pelz's package also proposes an additional $900 million for transit-related projects, including more than $287 million for transit outlays in the I-405 corridor on the Eastside. He proposes to boost supporting taxes less than the three executives proposed. He would increase the sales tax by 0.3 of 1 percent and impose a $75 annual vehicle license fee. He also would raise the motor-vehicle excise tax by 0.2 of 1 percent, the same as the executives, but would raise the sales tax by just 0.1 of 1 percent to support high-capacity transit such as rail and express buses -- dropping the excise-tax increase the executives proposed to support high-capacity transit.

Pelz said raising the excise-tax "is a difficult vote" for some elected council members in the three counties, which must approve a regional package.

He proposes, instead, to cover the light-rail expansion costs with existing Sound Transit taxes and shift some of the new road-building taxes to finance HOV lanes and ramps that otherwise would be paid for by Sound Transit.

Pelz said he offered his proposals in light of last week's publication of spending priorities offered by Councilman Rob McKenna. McKenna offered a different set of priorities: Completing all of the new 509 extension and parts of the Viaduct and I-405. He also proposed building a new eight-lane Evergreen Point Floating Bridge but leaving four of the eight lanes temporarily unconnected until money could be found to complete those. McKenna would not include extra outlays for light-rail, instead proposing to use existing Sound Transit taxes to finance transit-related highway projects.

Pelz yesterday expressed irritation with McKenna's statements of last week, saying he'd expected the two could continue negotiating a package on behalf of their party causes on the council.

"I'm offering an alternative," Pelz said. "Obviously, Mr. McKenna and I disagree about this package."

So may King County Executive Ron Sims, whose deputy staff chief Ethan Raup said Sims still favors a higher sales tax to support high-capacity transit. Raup, however, called Pelz's proposals "far more balanced" than McKenna's.

Some environmentalists still don't like any of the approaches offered so far. John Healy of the anti-sprawl organization 1,000 Friends of Washington, said even yesterday's proposal continues to place too much emphasis on road-building that could expand urban sprawl.

Pelz's ideas "are certainly better than (McKenna's)...but this is not that much different," Healy said.

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