Senate approves revote on Sound Transit

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA -- Voters who approved Sound Transit would get a chance to dismantle the troubled agency and redistribute its money under a bill passed by the Senate on Thursday.

Senate Bill 5362 passed in the latest temporary takeover by minority Republicans, who can seize control when maverick Democrat Tim Sheldon of Potlatch joins them.

Sound Transit -- created in 1996 by voters in parts of King, Snohomish and Pierce counties -- has run into delays and budget problems with its plan to build a north-south light rail line.

"They're a billion dollars over budget before they've even started digging," said Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Issaquah, the bill's sponsor. "We're going to give them (the voters) a chance to redistribute the money to something that actually works."

Rossi's measure, which would go before voters in November if it passes the Legislature, proposes that the authority's tax revenues be divided three ways among local road projects, local transit projects and state road projects.

That breakdown would devote far less money to mass transit such as regional bus service and the popular Sounder commuter train.

Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen said Rossi's bill was too broad to deal with the light rail problems.

"This undermines the regional bus service that is so successful, the Sounder that is so successful, to get at light rail," said Haugen, D-Camano Island.

Rossi and other Republicans argue that the public was misled by the campaign before the vote that created Sound Transit. Since then, they say, parts of the plan have disappeared and the cost has escalated.

"The voters pay more, wait longer and get less than what they bargained for," said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.

Democrats defended the plan, saying the increases are simply estimates at this stage.

"There are no cost overruns," said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle. "We haven't thrown any money away."

The bill passed 25-23, with Sheldon and all 24 Republicans voting yes. It now goes to the divided House, where it faces an uncertain fate this late in the Legislature's second special session.

Sound Transit officials were reluctant to comment on Rossi's proposal.

"We're deeply engaged in trying to implement the regionwide transportation plan that the voters approved," said Ric Ilgenfritz, the agency's chief communications officer.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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