McGinn: Drop transportation plan, focus on maintenance

Former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is urging state lawmakers trying to agree on a transportation plan to put aside political pressures and focus on funding road maintenance.

“It’s funny, I find myself taking a low tax position with you,” he told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz. “We have to start thinking about how we live within our means.”

Listen: Mike McGinn has a new podcast “You. Me. Us. Now.

The Legislature is in the midst of a special session with a transportation budget still on its to-do list.

Washington passed a 2005 deal to build a lengthy list of roads, bridges and transit projects with $7 billion in new revenues, principally a 9.5-cent gas tax. The Legislature failed in each of the last two years to pass a follow-up plan.

“Right now, in the Legislature, it’s just a feeding frenzy around a bunch of projects,” McGinn said. “It’s unbelievable.”

McGinn said as mayor, he never felt political pressure to maintain Seattle’s roads in the same way that he did for building new projects.

“Politicians respond to that pressure and neglect basic infrastructure and that’s what’s happening now in the state Legislature,” he said.

He said his fellow left-leaning politicians tend to think they haven’t mustered the will to tax themselves enough, but McGinn said the priority now should be about figuring out what the region really needs and what it can afford.

“In the face of all these huge maintenance deficits that we have: fixing the seawall, taking care of our electrical system or water system, cleaning up Puget Sound &#8212 we’re going to ignore that and build some shiny new stuff,” he said. “I really think we need to think about taking care of what we have and trying to be thriftier with our dollars.”

McGinn said that the federal trust fund is drying up while roads in Seattle and King County are going to gravel, not to mention the amount of bridges that are in desperate need of maintenance.

The former mayor said meanwhile, the city is focused on an expensive waterfront project and a proposed $200 million overpass over the railroad tracks in SoDo.

“Two hundred million is a lot of money. We would be better off taking care of our existing roadways rather than building a new bridges,” McGinn said.

What’s McGinn up to these days? He’s catching up with important people from his days in office and bringing you their stories.

Listen: Mike McGinn has a new podcast “You. Me. Us. Now.