Editorial: Budget gave state’s roads an overdue investment

The North Spokane Corridor is finally on the on-ramp to completion.

After more than a half-century of broken promises, Washington’s legislature last week appropriated the $879 million it will take to connect the highway strand that now terminates north of Francis Avenue all the way down Spokane’s east side to Interstate 90. The vision of a divided highway that could take trucks from Canada or other points north off Division and other North Side arterials will be realized, and the city’s place as a transportation hub reinforced.

Out on the West Plains, where most of the truck servicing and sales facilities have relocated in recent years, $23.6 million in improvements to the Medical Lake/Geiger interchanges will increase that area’s appeal to more companies like Caterpillar. I-90 will be widened in Spokane Valley, and a passing lane added to U.S. 195 between Colfax and Spangle, a stretch where too many crashes have taken lives over the years.

Within the city of Spokane, money has been allotted to the proposed Spokane Transit Authority Central City Line and the bridge over the BNSF Railway tracks that would connect the Riverpoint Campus with the East Sprague neighborhood.

All told, Spokane County will receive more than $1 billion out of the $16 billion that will be spent over the next 15 years to upgrade everything from sidewalks to roads to railroads to ferries. The payback for every $1 county residents will pay in gas taxes, weight and other fees: $1.29 to $1.35, depending on whose figure you use.

Contrast that with the 84 cent return for the 2004 through 2012 fiscal years. In short, it’s payback time.

And yet, Sen. Michael Baumgartner was the only county Republican who supported the revenue package that underwrites this plan, which will be among the area’s biggest economic drivers for decades.

Yes, gas taxes will go up 11.9 cents per gallon over the next year, a boost Rep. Matt Shea says will send drivers to Idaho. Guess what? They will find gas taxes there going up 7 cents per gallon because even the tight-fisted Republicans in Boise know roads and bridges are not self-repairing.

Baumgartner, a strong proponent of full funding for the North Spokane Corridor, took the hard vote for taxes, as did Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler of Ritzville, who for the first time in his 23-year incumbency supported a transportation package. The 3rd Legislative District Democrats were also on board.

Gov. Jay Inslee also did a tough thing, sacrificing his beloved low-carbon fuel proposal to get the transportation package done. His belated intervention in the negotiations was also helpful, but his supporters in the environmental community are none too happy.

The deal, by the way, finally ends the obnoxious practice of charging sales taxes on state construction projects, and it imposes a $5 fee on studded tires, which has been long overdue.

Washington’s transportation infrastructure is getting the investment it badly needs. When a bridge gets nicked by a truck and falls into the Skagit River, it’s time.