December 26, 2007: Some of the RTC members with others released a one-page summary of proposed "accountability legislation" suggested for consideration by the 2008 Legislature
With the failure of the Proposition 1 Roads & Transit tax package on November 6, 2007, the issue of regional transportation governance reform once again came under discussion. The failed Prop 1 was the result of years of effort under the present governance process. Several Washington State legislators, including Rep. Deb Eddy and Rep. Fred Jarrett, were reported at the beginning of 2008 to be working on a bill to implement a version of the structural reforms recommended in early 2007 by the ten-member Western Washington Regional Transportation Commission (RTC).
Rep. Eddy reported in Crosscut (in comments) that the work of herself and Rep. Jarrett "centers on re-negotiating the existing contract that creates and empowers the Puget Sound Regional Council. If we intend to strengthen the land use-transportation linkage, to motivate sufficient density to abate the high cost of housing and to ensure environmentally-friendly mobility in this region....that won’t happen by doing the same things that we’ve been doing for the last 20 years." No action resulted by the end of the 2008 session.
A bill was also introduced by Senator Mary Margaret Haugen (Bill 6772), but the bill got no further than a hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee she chairs. This bill intended to expand the mission of Sound Transit to include regional roads planning under a new board of directors, some appointed, some directly elected. This bill received at best a lukewarm reception, and died before the end of session.
The RTC had found "inadequate results" from present Puget Sound transportation planning. However, in November 2008, voters in the region doubled Sound Transit's tax rates for phase 2 of light rail. Sound Transit maintained all along that its efforts are quite adequate. Note this letter to the RTC from the Sound Transit CEO in December 2006.
Earlier, a board of civic volunteers appointed by the Governor and Legislator, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), had worked long hours in the second half of 2006 to examine Sound Transit, Puget Sound Regional Council, Washington State DOT, public transit agencies such as King County Metro, and municipal agencies such as Seattle and Tacoma transportation departments with an eye toward recommending how to improve transportation planning in Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Kitsap Counties.
After six months of study, including taking public testimony from leaders of existing transportation agencies throughout the region, the RTC issued recommendations to reorganize Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), Sound Transit (ST), and Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) into one consolidated planning organization. Implementation of recommendations were dependent upon new law passed by the State Legislature. The one-page document referenced above is an outline of what some members and boosters of the RTC suggest the new legislation should do. The summary tracks closely with the full report of the RTC referenced below.
In the 2007 legislative session, Bill 5803 originated in the Senate and Bill 2101 in the House. On March 12, 2007 the Senate Bill 5803 was approved by a Senate vote of 33-14. Full bill here. Bill summary here. It moved to the House, where entirely different language focused on more study was substituted via amendment. The bill died by the end of the session. Bill 2101 remained active in the House until the end of session, and it was also focused on more study rather than implementation. This bill died as well.
Agencies such as Sound Transit that are the focus of the reform recommendations successfully resisted any reform implementation or even discussion until after the November 6, 2007 Prop 1 election to implement a $47 billion (that's construction cost) next phase of the combined roads and transit plan created by the planning system that the RTC report criticizes. That election failed to pass the plan, and the RTID has gone inactive in the years since. The Sound Transit Chairman John Ladenburg provided a succinct oral summary of his objections to reform recommendations in a recorded interview from April 2007 while the Legislature was in session considering the above named bills.
Click here for the Commission's final report, dated December 31, 2006, with a cover letter to Governor Gregoire. This version includes a one-page recommendations addendum subsequently issued, and the complete text of Commissioner McDonald's Minority Report. Posted in pdf (2.5 megabytes).
Additional information, including Frequently Asked Questions and a summary Powerpoint was formerly posted on the RTC web at psrtc.wa.gov, a web site that has been removed from the Internet, but captured and retained at Archive.org. An earlier draft version of the final report circulated to a few agencies for comment is available for comparison here. The widely circulated first draft of the final report from November 2006 is posted here.
Quoting from the RTC final report:
"Today there are 128 agencies that manage aspects of transportation in the four-county region. If 128 parties are theoretically in charge of aspects of a problem, we concluded that in fact no one is really in charge. We have recommended that the Legislature create a new 15-member Puget Sound Regional Transportation Commission (PSRTC) that has authority and responsibility for planning, prioritizing and funding all modes of regional transportation for the four-county area. We believe that that agency can make decisions and establish public confidence by being directly accountable to the people. Our recommendations suggest that the agency should have responsibility for land use, roads and transit, including the three current regional entities. We believe the agency should have taxing, tolling and borrowing authority and should consist of nine elected and six appointed members. ... The three regional agencies – PSRC, RTID and ST – should be combined into this new agency."
The draft report issued earlier on November 15, 2006, was even sharper and more urgent in its critical language. In a clear draft finding, the Commission declared:
"In our view, we have a transportation governance system that delivers inadequate results. ... The present transportation governance system is broken and must be improved."
After a month of feedback from Sound Transit and other existing agencies that the findings and conclusions of the Commission might have impeded citizen approval in November 2007 of a $157 billion dollar light rail and roads tax and spending package that was being proposed by the present governance system (and it did lose at the polls), the final report shifts the focus of change to the future:
"Our current system of transportation governance delivers inadequate results, and will need fundamental systemic change to meet our region’s transportation needs in the future."
In the view of PITF, the problems are not "future," but "right now." Reorganization of transportation planning should come before asking citizens to provide billions more in higher taxes. This means, for example, structural reform should be implemented before citizens are asked to vote on a revised Sound Transit proposal that replaces the plan defeated in Prop 1. John Niles of Public Interest Transportation Forum emphasized this point earlier in testimony to the Washington State Legislature on February 22, 2007 (pdf).
A "discussion map" with the very critical initial thinking within the Commission was published on October 9, 2006. A pdf copy of the Commission's Powerpoint slides listing "Challenges, Causes, and Questions" is posted here.
Further background on the RTC members and the enabling legislation is found here.
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Last modified:
March 01, 2015
