Statement from House Transportation Committee Chair state Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) on the House Republicans' recently released transportation plan

 March 4, 2008

“This year, we passed a balanced transportation budget that keeps important safety improvements and congestion relief projects on schedule.  We are finishing up the SR 520 financing plan and the governor has announced that the new SR 520 bridge will open in 2014.  While it is nice to finally see some sort of proposal from House Republicans, it is hard to take these proposals seriously.

“Do the Republicans really expect leaders in Olympia to direct hundreds of millions of dollars that would normally go to schools and health care to road projects?  Do they really think it is possible to raise billions of dollars in property taxes to build a tunnel in Seattle that nobody wants?

"This plan is dead on arrival.  It relies on false construction savings, creates an enormous and reoccurring hole in the general fund, and completely disregards on-going SR 520 bridge replacement negotiations.”