Inslee to Call Special Session on Transportation Package "If We Can See the Votes"

At a joint press conference this morning with King County Executive Dow Constantine, Governor Jay Inslee announced plans to call a special legislative session in November to pass a transportation funding package... "if we can see the votes." That is, if a handful of Senate Republicans can muster the balls to stand up and take a vote on revenue, and if the votes are there to pass a package, then Inslee will call a special session to get this done in what remains of this non-election year.

Asked what's changed since the last time the Senate refused to vote on a transportation package, Inslee suggested that Republicans have heard back from their core constituency: "They've caught both barrels from business community, asking 'why haven't you acted?'" Inslee emphasized the tremendous business opportunities Washington state has to grow its trade with Asia. "But if you can't get your truck across Lake Washington, you can't do business."

Both Inslee and Constantine spoke about the importance of including additional tax authority for King County in the package to stave off a projected 17 percent cut in Metro bus service. But it's not clear that even a November special session can come soon enough to prevent some cutbacks. The transportation package that passed the House—the one Inslee said he was ready to press the "go" button on if the Senate passed it—would give King County the authority to raise up to a 1.5 percent Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET), but only on approval of voters. A special election would take months to mount, and implementation would take months more. But Metro will run through its reservers by the end of June, 2014.

According to King County transportation policy advisor Chris Arkills, Metro will start a public process this fall on how to cut about 600,000 hours a year of bus service. The current assumption is that these cuts will begin to be phased—about 150,000 hours worth initially—in the June, 2014, service change, with additional cuts of similar magnitude implemented over the subsequent three service changes. Metro changes service three times a year, in June, October, and February.

"If we know that we have a clear path to the ballot, we could possibly forestall the first round of those cuts for a short time," says Arkills, "but would have to make bigger cuts in the future to reach the needed cuts to get to 600,000 hours," should that fail. For Arkills, the imminence of these cuts reinforces the need for a special session. "Waiting until the end of the regular session is highly problematic," warns Arkills, "especially if they fail to act again."

Or as no-revenue-for-any-reason Republicans might put it, especially if the succeed in not acting again.