Bill passed in the face of Republican opposition that said it lacks guardrails around toll revenue and will hurt southwest Washingtonians
TJ Martinell
The Center Square Washington
The Washington Legislature passed a bill allowing tolling on the Interstate 5 Bridge spanning the Columbia River between Vancouver and Portland in the face of Republican opposition that said it lacks guardrails around toll revenue and will hurt southwest Washingtonians.
“There is distrust by many people in southwest Washington about how these funds are going to be used,” Rep. Ed Orcutt, R- Kalama, told colleagues on April 18. “I agree we need that bridge. I’ve driven over that bridge, it does need to be replaced. No question about it. But we need to earn the trust of the people in southwest Washington.”
SB 5765 is intended to help the states of Washington and Oregon generate a portion of the revenue necessary to replace the more than century old I-5 Bridge.
Tolling would only be charged on the current bridge and the replacement bridge when it is eventually built. The Washington and Oregon Transportation Commissions would set the toll rates. It would also be illegal to extend Oregon’s tolling system on Interstate 205 into Washington state’s section of that road.
As passed, the bill stipulates that toll expenditures are subject to appropriation by the Legislature and can only be done for specific reasons, such as repaying debt or covering the operating costs of the toll facility.
One failed amendment would have further limited the expenditure of toll funds to covering the facility’s operating costs and repayment of debt, while another unsuccessful amendment would have limited toll collection to the replacement bridges.
Much of the opposition to the bill focused on how the tolling would impact Clark County residents who commute to Oregon and are subject to the state’s income tax. One failed amendment would have exempted Washington residents who pay the Oregon income tax from paying the I-5 toll. Prior to 2020, only seven of Oregon’s 36 counties paid more to the state in income taxes than Clark County.
“They shouldn’t be doubled taxed,” Rep. Greg Cheney, R-Battle Ground, told colleagues on April 18.
Another failed amendment concerned an existing agreement between Clark County Transit, or C-Tran, and Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, or TriMet, which grants TriMet eminent domain authority in Washington state within C-Tran’s jurisdiction in order to expand its light rail system.
Orcutt said the contract has been perceived by local residents as “an assault on property rights. That’s not good for the people of southwest Washington. It’s a precedent that should have never been set.”
Also in favor of the amendment was Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, who said “Let’s keep the state border clean. It is a matter of local control, and ceding local control to an entity in another state is not good policy.”
Another failed amendment would have required the toll rate be lowered to a level necessary for the bridge’s maintenance and preservation once the bonds to pay for the bridge have been fully paid off.
SB 5765 has been sent to Gov. Jay Inslee for signing.
This report was first published by The Center Square Washington.
Also read:
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The city of Vancouver is set to repave and preserve 76 lane miles across 20 neighborhoods in summer 2025, with ADA upgrades and community notices throughout. - State representative: Expect sticker shock when Interstate Bridge project officials reveal price, tolling plansAt a town hall in Battle Ground, Rep. John Ley warned of major cost increases and tolling burdens tied to the Interstate Bridge replacement project.
- Opinion: Washington state lawmakers increase the cost of driving – againBob Pishue of Mountain States Policy Center argues that new vehicle and fuel taxes in Washington will raise driving costs while diverting funds away from roads.
- Overnight full closure of I-5 near Woodland for bridge inspection, May 6
WSDOT will fully close southbound I-5 near Woodland overnight on Tuesday, May 6 for a bridge inspection using a chain drag test. - Opinion: Do we still need TriMet?John A. Charles Jr. of the Cascade Policy Institute argues that TriMet should halt expansion plans and prepare for major service reductions in response to falling ridership and rising costs.
Figures! Deamoncraps don’t care about the people they supposedly work for, they only care about getting and spending other peoples money recklessly.
Thank you Jim Walsh and Ed Orcutt for fighting on behalf of the citizens of SW Washington!
Tolling is a hugely inefficient means of collecting taxpayer money for transportation projects. In Seattle on their I-405 system, the cost of collection was 68% of money collected, in 2021.
In fact the state legislature had to bail out the entire tolling system for the past 3 years. They used General Fund money to cover the “cost of collection” for all 5 of the state’s tolling areas.
Furthermore, travel has been so poor on the SR-99 tunnel that WSDOT is now predicting the SR-99 tunnel will be under water for the next 30 years.
The gas tax is much more efficient means of raising money. The cost of collect is under 1%.
Finally, Washington is the ONLY state to NOT provide tax relief in the face of record taxpayer money coming in. They certainly can afford to fund the bridge from current revenues, without adding a new, additional tax for SW Washington.
Bankers and financiers must be happy for the plan to fund debt with tolls, in perpetuity. At a hearing of the Transportation in the legislature about 10 years ago, there was a push to pay as we go for transportation projects more roads for the $. That wise philosophy put taxpayer $ into projects, whereas debt puts the taxpayer $ into interest payments at the benefit of the financiers.
Today, the legislative Democrat majority seems unconcerned about costs of debt, and costs of toll collection, and just passed this bill with known extremely high cost of collection(as much as 68% in some cases) vs the traditional gas tax funding or other cost effective funding for necessary transportation projects. Fiscal responsibility has gone down the drain, and local, state, and federal government simply puts desired spending on non-essentials on the credit card. There are many aspects of this I-5 bridge project, like gold plated light rail vs. cost effective buses and vans that have pushed costs up to $7 BILLION, before cost overruns.
These toll rates on the 520 bridge between Seattle and the East side are going up 15% in July.
The unelected transportation commissions doesn’t answer to the legislature, toll rates go up and up.
RE: “Another failed amendment concerned an existing agreement between Clark County Transit, or C-Tran, and Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, or TriMet, which grants TriMet eminent domain authority in Washington state within C-Tran’s jurisdiction in order to expand its light rail system.
Orcutt said the contract has been perceived by local residents as “an assault on property rights. That’s not good for the people of southwest Washington. It’s a precedent that should have never been set.”
The C-Tran CEO Shawn Donaghy has told the C-Tran Board of Directors as well as multiple people in the community (Camas City Council meeting) that the agreement was considered by BOTH parties (TriMet and C-Tran) to be unenforceable and null and void.
Why would democrats in the legislature oppose an agreement that is null and void, if it truly were “unenforceable” and both parties agreed upon that fact?
Something is huge wrong here. The people of Clark County need to know whether or not the agreement is null and void, or if TriMet is once again playing games, to the detriment of Washington residents.
The horrible contract ceded C-Tran’s eminent domain authority to TriMet. It contained a $5 million penalty clause, and the C-Tran lawyer agreed to language saying it was “absolute and irrevocable”. He should have been terminated on the spot. But sadly the Vancouver city council members on the board refused to express any outrage at all over this horrible contract.