State representative angry Rantz called him out on tolling
Jun 3, 2016, 4:09 PM | Updated: 4:22 pm
(WSDOT)
I recently called out State Representative Luis Moscoso (D-Bothell) for purposefully trying to deceive voters about his past (and current) support of the I-405 Express Toll Lanes. He’s pretty mad.
Despite voting in favor of the bill that both established the toll lanes on I-405 and explained that the plan was to implement them across Washington, Moscoso is trying to tell voters that he’s anti-tolling.
Related: Rantz says State representative dishonestly claims he’s anti-tolling
In his Voter’s Guide statement, Moscoso, now running for State Senator, says, “[h]e stood up to his own party to demand changes when the 405 HOV lane experiment failed. He will always stand against tolling 405.”
This is patently false. He has not always stood against tolling (he’s still not calling for an end to tolling I-405) and he only called for modest fixes after Republicans earned support for standing against tolling that made traffic worse and Washingtonians poorer.
I’ve asked Moscoso to discuss his position. He continues to decline, citing to my producer that he doesn’t want to politicize the issue (during my one interview with him, he essentially said he didn’t think it was fair to ask for bipartisan support on fixing I-405 because it would politicize the issue to bring Republicans on board).
I emailed Moscoso with two questions and I said I would print his response. The questions? Pretty straightforward:
-Can you provide for me any public statements you’ve made indicating you’ve always been against the I-405 ETLs?
-Can you also send me any instances in which you stood up to the Democrats to demand changes?
I aim to be fair: I state where I stand and why, and always allow people to come on the show to explain their perspectives. My fairness is what keeps people coming back on the show despite clear disagreements.
After I published my critical piece, Moscoso finally emailed me back.
Unfortunately, despite claiming not to want to politicize, he tries to play victim and dismiss me as a “conservative talk radio host” who is lying about his position. Then, he just lists a bunch of talking points.
As you can see, he does not answer my first question at all and spins an answer on the second one:
Once again, a conservative talk radio host is misinterpreting my position during an election season. The ETLs were supported by a bipartisan group of legislators, including Sen. Andy Hill and Sen. Michael Baumgartner, as a test to see if would improve mobility. When that system didn’t work, I took immediate action and stood up to WSDOT – run by a Democrat, appointed by a Democratic Governor – and got results. WSDOT made immediate changes and is doing more. As far as the Harmsworth legislation, there is more than one way to get something done in Olympia. Oftentimes, the fastest route to a solution doesn’t involve a bill, but calling the agency head directly to make things happen. That is the kind of leadership that my constituents expect.
In 2015, as Vice Chair of Transportation, we took action and passed a supplemental budget that includes the following efforts in the I-405 corridor (specifically in the area of the ETLs):
o $250,000: for WSDOT to identify priority projects in corridor
o $3.0 million: preliminary engineering & EIS for addition of hard shoulder to serve as a general purpose traffic lane between SR 527 and I-5 (Additional $27.0 million provided in financial plan 2019-2025)
o $15.0 million for northbound auxiliary lanes on I-405 provided in financial plan 2017-2021
o Direction to WSDOT to make corridor planning on SR 522 between Maltby and the Snohomish River Bridge a priority
o Direction to WSDOT to provide additional reporting on travel times in general purpose lanes, ETLs for the entire corridor and for commonly made trips
o Direction to WSDOT to expand length of access and exit points to the ETLs, clarify signage and striping and make other operational and customer service improvements.
Based on this email response, does he seem to stand against tolling I-405 or does he just want to make the ETLs work better to collect the tolls? Are you convinced he’s being honest when he says he “will always stand against tolling 405.” If you’re looking to support a different candidate in this district, consider Democrat Guy Palumbo or Republican Mindie Wirth.