By Ken Schram, political commentary
How many hands can fit in our pockets?
In a never-ending quest to find creative ways of separating people from their money, we’ve got Gov. Christine Gregoire pushing the idea of putting a toll on the 520 bridge next year.
The rationale behind this is that it will close the funding gap for a new bridge that is sometime in our future.
Mind you, no one knows exactly what the new 520 bridge is going to look like and no one knows exactly where the new 520 bridge is going be placed, but those pesky little details don’t seem to bother the governor.
It appears that after consulting with her astrological advisors, the governor has concluded that the stars are precisely aligned to the point where she is emphatic about predicting that the bridge will be up and running by 2018.
Of course the big question that the governor avoided answering is whether tolling 520 also means having to toll I-90.
I mean, come on, if you have to pay to use one bridge while you can use the other one for free, which bridge are you going to take?
But now there’s another rub.
A new measure working its way through the state House doesn’t limit any would-be tolls on 520 to just paying for a new bridge. Having been graced with a financial epiphany, lawmakers have come up with a ploy to use 10 percent of the tolls collected for public transit.
So let’s do a quick review.
In addition to the 36 cents a gallon we pay in state gasoline taxes; in addition to the $11 billion that we’ve approved in new taxes for a slew of road projects; in addition to the extra taxes we took on to pay for mass transit projects — we’re now on the cusp of having tolls fostered on us as a means of paying for major, mega, super-duper projects and public transit.
One study shows that tolls in the greater Seattle area could generate up to $458 million a year, assuming (are you ready for this?) that: Motorists are charged from using all lanes of I-5 from the I-405 interchange all the way to the Pierce County line; pay to use the Alaskan Way Viaduct (presumably before the governor single-handedly tears it down like she’s promised); pay to use any and all lanes of I-405; pay to use a dozen or so miles of I-90 in and out of Seattle; pay to use a 12-mile chunk of SR-509 and SR-167.
Oh, and the gasoline tax may have to be raised again.
Hell, here’s an idea: Why don’t we just send our paychecks to the folks down in Olympia, let them take out what they need and just send us whatever is left over?
Look, I don’t expect to get anything for free. I understand that I’m going to have to pay for the road improvements and projects that will mitigate the congestion mess we’re in.
But if the folks in Olympia think I’m so stupid as to buy into what they’re considering, think again.
Ken Schram is a KOMO-TV and radio commentator whose radio feature with John Carlson, “The Commentators,” airs weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. on AM 570 KVI. Contact: kenschram@komo4news.com.
