Orphan Road

Exempting the state from paying itself sales tax on transportation projects seems eminently reasonable:

The tax exemption would apply only to transportation projects that use tolls to pay for at least $1 billion of the total cost or use tolls to pay at least 50 percent of the cost. The $735 million Narrows bridge qualifies because more than 90 percent of its cost will come from tolls that will be paid through 2030.

For the replacement Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington, the exemption would cut $180 million from the cost of a project that is now estimated at $4.38 billion.

Other projects that could be eligible for the sales tax exemption are a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River, which will cost $3 billion to $5 billion, and the north-south corridor in Spokane, which is expected to cost between $2 billion and $2.5 billion.

The reason this matters for the Columbia River Crossing, of course, is that WSDOT would have otherwise bought the bridge in Portland to save the sales tax.