Gorton on board to push road tax

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Monday, April 1, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Backers of a $7.7 billion statewide transportation tax package are putting together a star-studded lineup to push the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot, including Gov. Gary Locke and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton.

The campaign, which might become the dominant political issue of the summer, will require $3 million to $5 million to wage, campaign fund-raiser Tracy Newman said Friday.

The tax package, Referendum 51, will ask voters to increase the state's 23-cent-per-gallon gas tax by 9 cents per gallon. It also would add a 1 percent sales surcharge on car purchases and increase weight fees for heavy trucks by 30 percent.

Partner with Locke

Gorton, a Republican who lost his 2000 re-election bid against Maria Cantwell, will join Democratic Gov. Locke as a co-chair of the campaign. Also volunteering are Republican state Sens. Dan McDonald of Bellevue, Dan Swecker of Rochester and Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla, Gorton said Friday.

"This is going to be a partnership of people who worked with me in the past and people who worked with him (Locke) in the past," Gorton said in a telephone interview from his Seattle law office. "Obviously there are parts of the state where I will carry more influence than others. But we're going to be doing this hand in hand in all corners of the state."

Gorton said the hardest sell to voters will be "the fact that people are going to want to be sure that if they pay more taxes, they are going to get their dollar's worth. I have reasonable confidence they will."

Gorton's involvement in the campaign came at Locke's request "a number of weeks ago when he and I hoped it would be passed much quicker and it would be a June election," Gorton said. "I essentially agreed then to do it."

Locke told reporters when he signed a regional transportation funding bill a few days ago that he, too, is pledging "to work vigorously for the passage of the statewide transportation referendum."

Support from urban areas

Polling has shown more support for the package in urban Western Washington, especially King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, where many mega-projects are located, but the campaign will be run statewide.

An Elway Poll released last week by pollster Stuart Elway showed 52 percent of voters favored the tax package, while 46 percent opposed it.

The poll of 405 registered voters, done March 18 to 21, had an error margin of plus or minus 5 percent.

"Of those who support it, 67 percent of all the people statewide who support it live in King, Snohomish or Pierce counties. It passes there and nowhere else," Elway said.

Opposition is pretty even everywhere across the state. Outside the three traffic-choked counties, 55 percent of voters said they intend to vote no, Elway said.

Elway's findings mirrored a poll done earlier this year by Peter Hart Research Associates of Washington, D.C., which showed 49 percent would vote for a state transportation plan while 39 percent would oppose it.

The group led by Locke and Gorton is calling itself Yes on Referendum 51. It has registered with the Public Disclosure Commission and begun meeting with interest groups, including business and labor organizations, to look for backers and cash donors.

"We're just lining up the pieces," Gorton said. "We're obviously going to talk to people in business and labor about the necessary financial support. But we're going to try to see that we have people who can spearhead the effort in every significant community in the state."

Gorton said he hopes the measure appeals to a broad audience.

"We want to go just beyond the normal thing that this is good for business," he said. "One of my emphases is this is good for safety. Overcrowded highways lead to accidents, injuries and deaths."

Business groups, including the Association of Washington Business, have not yet signed on. But it's early, Newman said.

AWB president Don Brunell said his 3,800-member group had favored a smaller surtax on auto sales and a smaller weight tax increase than what lawmakers, in a strongly bipartisan vote, eventually put on the ballot. Still, he expects many in his group will come around to support the measure, which is seen as necessary to help the business climate in Puget Sound, improve safety in rural areas and get products to market.

The Washington State Labor Council will probably send out mailers, hand out leaflets and do other work in support of the measure, but the size of its financial commitment hasn't been decided, council spokesman David Groves said. He predicted building-trade groups will be contributors.

Auto dealers

Wild cards in the election are the state's auto dealers, who would see their sales taxed, and transit advocates such as the Transportation Choices Coalition, who wanted to see more money put into alternatives to highways.

Auto dealers had agreed not to oppose a statewide transportation package late in February when lawmakers approved a $35 fee on car sales to cover registration and other related paperwork. But in the package sent to the polls, that optional fee for dealers was stricken.

Vicki Giles Fabre, executive vice president of the Washington State Auto Dealers Association Inc., said the group won't take a position until after its annual meeting later this month. Until then, dealers are being encouraged to stay neutral.

The Transportation Choices Coalition warned earlier this year that it might wage a campaign against the package, and it still could, said Peter Hurley, executive director.

"It'll actually worsen traffic in the first 10 years" because so many projects will be going at the same time, Hurley said. Among those are Interstate 405 near Bellevue and the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle.

"What we're attempting to do is talk to DOT and see if they are willing to spend a portion of the highway funds to mitigate the congestion that is created by all that new construction, and spend it on buses and van pools," Hurley said.

The answer to that question could tip the scales for activists. Hurley said it's within the realm of possibility the coalition could actively support the package or oppose it.

Brunell is among those who think Gorton's involvement in the measure can improve its chances of success.

"I think Slade has a lot of political credibility around the state. ... I think he sees a tremendous need to deal with a very severe problem we face in this state," Brunell said.

"I think it'll be a huge help," agreed Swecker, who represents southern Thurston County and most of Lewis County. "It will be perceived as bipartisan. I think Slade has a long record of having the interests of 'the rest of Washington' in his bailiwick. I think people who aren't in those three (central Puget Sound) counties will see that Slade is probably giving them an honest story on the need for this."

What's next

The Yes on Referendum 51 group is just getting organized, naming Gov. Gary Locke and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton as co-chairs.

For information on how to get involved in the campaign, call fund-raiser Tracy Newman at 206-328-2969 in Seattle, or write to Yes on Referendum 51, P.O. Box 21287, Seattle, WA 98111. A Web site will be created later.

No formal opposition group has formed, though state auto dealers, truckers and the Transportation Choices Coalition are among groups that could oppose the measure.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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