Facing budget cuts, will Olympia finally fund our roads like it should?
Jan 14, 2025, 5:38 AM
The reflection of water inside a pothole in the middle of a Seattle road. (Photo courtesy of Seattle Department of Transportation)
(Photo courtesy of Seattle Department of Transportation)
The state is facing a multi-billion dollar deficit. The incoming governor is asking for a 6% cut in spending. How will that impact the condition of the roads and bridges?
Washington State Transportation Secretary Roger Millar will give his final update to the Washington State Transportation Commission tomorrow, and it will sound very familiar. Lawmakers in Olympia simply do not fund our roads, bridges and ferries anywhere close to adequately.
I want to dig into the numbers to show you just how our transportation needs are being ignored and underfunded.
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When it comes to preservation, just taking care of what we have, the legislature fails to fund our roads by $980 million a year. That’s why our roads are so bad, and the cracks and holes aren’t getting fixed. The current investment in road and bridge preservation is only 40% of what it would take for this infrastructure to be considered in a state of good repair.
When added to the needs of public transportation, facilities and ferries, the legislature only funds $1.44 billion annually. The actual need to keep these facilities from crumbling is $2.49 billion. And this is an annual figure.
Let’s take a look at the ferry system. It’s expected to take over $6 billion to get us back to where we need to be. The legislature has only provided $1.8 billion. That’s a $4.6 billion hole. Eighty percent of these costs are for building the necessary new boats.
The federally-mandated fish culvert work also needs more money. It was originally expected to cost the state $4 billion. The legislature needs to find another $5 billion to meet its responsibilities by 2030.
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That’s about $10 billion in funding that the state needs right now to maintain our aging roads, bridges and ferries.
That’s how much the legislature has refused to fund in this basic area, and with the same control in Olympia, this isn’t likely to change.
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