Chopp vows passage of roads plan

Speaker says House package will include vote of people

PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Tuesday, February 12, 2002

OLYMPIA -- By next week, House Speaker Frank Chopp said, the House will have accomplished what legislators have been unable to accomplish for the past two years: Passage of a multibillion-dollar package of improvements for the state's ailing transportation system.

"It will be next Monday at the latest," Chopp said Monday at his weekly media briefing.

The details of the package, though, are still taking shape. Chopp, D-Seattle, said House Democrats will roll out their proposal to the public by the end of this week. It will include a gas tax increase that's likely to fall between seven and 10 cents a gallon, Chopp said, and voters will have the final say on whether the tax is levied.

"The package that comes out of the House will have a statewide vote attached to it," Chopp said.

Locke's preference

Gov. Gary Locke has proposed an $8.5 billion plan to be funded by a nine-cent-per-gallon tax, to be phased in three cents a year for three years.

Locke on Monday reaffirmed his conviction that legislators need to pass the tax increase themselves, and not send it to voters.

"I still prefer to have it done here in Olympia," Locke said, a position officially shared by the Democratic leadership in the Senate.

Increasingly, though, many lawmakers speculate that Locke and Senate leaders have privately assented to the reality that the only way a tax increase will pass both houses is if it goes to voters. Republican Sen. Jim Horn of Mercer Island -- who himself would rather take the vote in Olympia -- said most realize a public vote is better than nothing.

"If you can't get something done, you've got to do what you can get," Horn said.

If the House package heads to the Senate with the public vote provision, Horn said, there's no guarantee senators will stick to that plan.

"It rarely happens that they pass a bill and we just say, 'Oh, that's wonderful, let's leave it like that,' " Horn said. "I've heard some people say the Senate ought to just strip the referendum right off of it, and send it back over there."

Broad support

Chopp said he'd like to assemble a package that can find broad support in both chambers, and from Democrats and Republicans. House Democratic leaders have pledged to include Republicans in talks before setting the legislation's final composition.

That hasn't happened yet, said Rep. Maryann Mitchell, the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee.

"It's going to be pretty intense. If they think they can do it in a week, we'd better get going," she said.

Mitchell said she's skeptical of Democratic offers to work with Republicans on the final package. That didn't happen earlier in the session, she said, when Democrats rolled out transportation efficiencies and a regional transportation plan that will allow Central Puget Sound counties to proceed with their own projects separate from the statewide package.

"Now that they're looking at something where they could get burned, that's when they say they want our help," Mitchell said.

Even as the House looks to firming up the statewide plan, disagreement still lingers on the regional package, which is still under discussion by House and Senate negotiators. Chopp said House Democrats have delivered their "bottom line" to the Senate side, and he expressed hope for resolution within days.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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