Focus On I-912 GOP Opposition: Dave Schmidt

Republican State Senator Dave Schmidt (44th District) opposes I-912.

When the Washington State Senate voted for the transportation bill last spring Dave Schmidt stood stringly behind his vote:

"My constituents didn’t send me to Olympia to balk at the tough decisions; they didn’t send me to Olympia to hide my head in the sand when difficult issues come up; and they didn’t send me to Olympia to abdicate my constitutional responsibility of watching out for their safety and wellbeing," Schmidt said. "Folks in my district are commuters. And they are seeing more people hurt on the highways while they spend more and more of their time in gridlock. It’s time for a change."

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"For years, I’ve been advocating performance audits for all government agencies, but especially for transportation," Schmidt said. "We need real performance audits to measure the successes and failures, the strengths and weaknesses of our system. Without the inclusion of the performance audits – to be sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and efficiently – I could not have supported this package."

These days Dave Schmidt is still trying to do his part in support of the transportation bill, and against I-912, the short-sighted initiative that looks to repeal the gas tax funding aspect of the bill that would raise $5.5 billion over the next 16 years. Speaking to members of the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce, the The Everett Herald reports I-912 opponents made their case about today's realities:

"Sometimes reality needs to take over," Schmidt said.

During a panel discussion, he refuted claims that the transportation package focused too heavily on the Seattle area. He said the reason the package seems centered on King County is because television and radio news caters to that population base and tends to report on projects such as rebuilding the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

A Snohomish County project includes $123 million designated to improve Highway 9 from Woodinville to Arlington, which Schmidt said he lobbied for.

He said he supported the gas tax increase because without it Highway 9 congestion might not be addressed for another 10 years or more.

"The reality is, if we don't start doing something to fix the problems for all of us in the Puget Sound region, our children are seriously going to pay down the road," Schmidt said.

Meanwhile WashBlog recently noted that during a ground breaking ceremony on a three-year, $33 million project to widen Highway 9 from Highway 522 in Woodinville to Highway 524, Dave Schmidt once again stated the case for the gas tax that would raise $133 million towards widening sections of Highway 9. I-912 would wipe out funding that would not become available again for decades.

Dave Schmidt doesn't agree with his party's endorsement of I-912, and is speaking out against it, as are many others in his party who have understood that while there will be many political battles fought over the next few years, the urgently needed transportation bill should not be one of them. The bill was passed with bipartisan support, with 18 Republicans voting for the bill in the predominantly Democratic legislature.

This is significant because I-912 is very much a Republican constituent concoction intended to create roadblocks for Democratic leadership in Olympia. Problem is it also will literally create roadblocks on our highways by starving the transportation bill of 60% of its funding. Proponents would have you believe that losing $5.5 billion the gas tax would raise would be a mere "flesh wound", and that the state has loads of money already to pay for the 270 projects planned. Wrong!

They believe their initiative would "send a message" to Olympia that they need to be more accountable with the money. Well that might be fair if the message hadn't already been heard, but it has. The transportation bill actually allots $4 million for performance audits over the next 2 years. Kill the bill by voting for I-912 and you'll actually be killing the money needed to do the audits!

Simply put, I-912 is a hatchet job that would be akin to cutting off the arms and legs of Washington state in a time of much needed transportation repairs, and traffic improvement projects.