Bill lets Clark County voters decide on light-rail with TriMet

Moeller’s bill OKs way – with citizens having final say – for a regional HCTCA

February 17, 2009

OLYMPIA – A Southwest Washington lawmaker is sponsoring a plan giving Clark County voters the final decision on the idea of creating a High Capacity Transportation Corridor Area (HCTCA).
The corridor area would facilitate the use of the future new Interstate 5 bridge to hook up with the Portland metropolitan area’s TriMet light-rail system that will cross the new span over the Columbia River from Oregon.
State Rep. Jim Moeller’s proposal is contained in House Bill 1677, which is poised to pass the House Transportation Committee on Thursday, Feb. 19.
Moeller said his plan allows Clark County’s C-TRAN to create a subdistrict, and then ask voters who live in the subdistrict to decide whether they want to fund a light-rail system connecting with TriMet. Voter-approval would be needed before either a system plan or a finance plan could be implemented.
“Our regional transit agency would be authorized to provide service for high-capacity transit funded through voter-approved revenue measures,” Moeller said.
He explained that the revenue sources “could entail an employer tax of up to $2 per month per employee, a sales-and-use tax on rental-car sales not to exceed 2.172 percent, or a sales-and-use tax not to exceed 0.9 percent.”
To assure development of an effective system of high-capacity transit, Moeller said that the local authority must establish a plan for setting up and funding the system “to make sure that members of the public are involved in the process.”
“A review panel would be put in place to provide independent technical review for development of any plan that is to be funded either partly or wholly with public dollars.”
Here’s a link to the Transportation Committee of which Moeller is a member, and here is a link to HB 1677.