Orphan Road

We don't have tolls yet, but we have an important first step: a framwork for imposing tolls:

The House voted 59-35 in favor of House Bill 1773, a measure that sets a policy for how, when and on whom tolls would be imposed in future transportation projects. The bill, which now goes to the Senate, was approved largely on a party-line vote. A handful of Republicans joined majority Democrats to pass it.

“It does not impose a toll,” Rep. Judy Clibborn, a Mercer Island Democrat and chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, said in the debate in Olympia. “Tonight, we are not imposing tolls.”

Rather, she said, lawmakers are setting the framework for future discussions on tolling facilities across the state.

Among those are the $4.4 billion Highway 520 bridge in King County, Interstate 5 bridges over the Columbia River to Portland, a freeway at the edge of Spokane, Interstate 90 across Snoqualmie Pass and – although it’s unlikely – the $2.8 billion Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle.

Transit advocates should be pleased, mostly about what was not included in the bill. The amendments that would have prevented the funds from being spent on transit or from tolling the existing 520 bridge were both defeated.