Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 21, 2001
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke addresses energy and transportation issues at Bremerton Rotary Club

BREMERTON - Calling Washington's transportation system a mess, Gov. Gary Locke today called upon Kitsap County business leaders to help him pass his transportation package.

Locke discussed his 10-year, $17.2 billion transportation proposal in an address to the Bremerton Rotary Club.

Before talking to Rotary members about his transportation proposal, Locke addressed the Bush Administration's recently released energy policy.

"As a long-term strategy the Administration's plan does not address our immediate energy crisis - runaway wholesale energy prices that are hurting our region's businesses, farms and citizens," Locke said. "This is not just a California problem. It is a national problem that requires real and immediate action. We cannot simply dig, drill, burn and pollute our way to energy security."

Referring to his transportation plan, the governor said, "I need to enlist you - the business leaders of Kitsap County - to help us enact meaningful traffic relief. Review your schedules for this week, and identify time to come down to Olympia. I want each of you to identify five state legislators and make time to contact them. Let's get my transportation package for traffic relief approved. We can't afford to delay any longer."

The governor said that his transportation priorities for Kitsap County and the surrounding region include:

Providing more than $820 million in new capital investments in the state's ferry system, including replacing four 1920s-era ferries

Continuing funding for passenger-only ferries

Providing $8 million in roadway improvements to SR-304, from SR-3 to the Bremerton ferry terminal

Contributing more than $20 million in nine different highway improvement projects along Highway 101

Helping to reduce tolls on a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge by furnishing $50 million to match the same amount from the region for that purpose.

To pay for the package, the governor proposed a 50 percent gross weight surcharge for trucks and a 2 percent sales and use tax increase for new and used vehicles. The package, which is contingent upon voter approval, also calls for a 4-cent increase in gas taxes in January 2002 and a 3-cent tax increase in 2004.

The governor's transportation plan would give metropolitan-area counties the ability to form transportation regions. The transportation regions would provide local option revenue sources - subject to approval by voters in the regions - that would pay for regional highway improvements.

"To speed up projects on the Peninsula, the greater Bremerton-area also may want to establish a regional transportation program," the governor said. "The state cannot go it alone. We've got to be fair and have balance. A partnership of state and regional investment is the smart and fair way of breaking out of gridlock while we improve the whole state transportation system."

"Under the package for traffic relief I'm proposing, at least 85 percent of the new state transportation dollars will stay within the region in which they are raised and 100 percent of the new regional dollars will stay within the region in which they are raised," Locke stated.

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Related Links:
- Energy is Money. Think Before You Spend it.
- A State and Regional Partnership to Break the Gridlock
- Regional Empowerment to Cut Traffic Congestion
- Governor Gary Locke's Proposed Ten-Year Transportation Plan
- Governor Gary Locke's Proposed Transportation Project List

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