This Washington
Transportation Choices' Review of the Session: From Bad to Worse
The Transportation Choices Coalition held a Friday forum this afternoon to talk about how transit advocates fared this legislative session. The short version: Not so great—virtually every bill transit advocates supported, from legislation to expand Metro's funding options to a bill creating a grant program for bike, pedestrian, and transit improvements on state highways that run through urban areas, died.
Those failures can be attributed, in large part, to transportation chair Mary Margaret Haugen, who rules her committee (not composed of transit advocates anyway) with an iron fist. "She's only willing to talk about transit funding in the context of a bigger transportation package, and she isn't willing to talk about a comprehensive transportation package yet."
The problem with that approach, said TCC policy associate Andrew Austin, is that "these [transit] agencies are starving"—facing cuts, in some cases, of more than 50 percent. "We just need to get them through the next year or two. They’ll still be hungry."Although LaBorde said transit advocates did manage to "build leadership on good transportation policy," notably moving House transportation chair Judy Clibborn more in the direction of transit-friendly policies, the Senate remains "a disaster."
"In a lot of ways, the Senate is a broken institution right now—more broken than the US Senate. I think [Senate Majority Leader] Lisa Brown is able to do a good job on some things that are the highest priorities for her caucus, but even people in the House who don’t like [House Speaker] Frank Chopp or disagree with him still respect him. There’s not that same dynamic in the Senate."
"We don't really have any transit advocates at all in the Senate except for Ed [Murray], and he isn't on the transportation committee," Austin added. "In the House, we have Judy Clibborn, who's sometimes on our side, but there's also great transit advocates on her committee. In the Senate, we really have no one we can go to to help us move mountains."
Those failures can be attributed, in large part, to transportation chair Mary Margaret Haugen, who rules her committee (not composed of transit advocates anyway) with an iron fist. "She's only willing to talk about transit funding in the context of a bigger transportation package, and she isn't willing to talk about a comprehensive transportation package yet."
The problem with that approach, said TCC policy associate Andrew Austin, is that "these [transit] agencies are starving"—facing cuts, in some cases, of more than 50 percent. "We just need to get them through the next year or two. They’ll still be hungry."Although LaBorde said transit advocates did manage to "build leadership on good transportation policy," notably moving House transportation chair Judy Clibborn more in the direction of transit-friendly policies, the Senate remains "a disaster."
"In a lot of ways, the Senate is a broken institution right now—more broken than the US Senate. I think [Senate Majority Leader] Lisa Brown is able to do a good job on some things that are the highest priorities for her caucus, but even people in the House who don’t like [House Speaker] Frank Chopp or disagree with him still respect him. There’s not that same dynamic in the Senate."
"We don't really have any transit advocates at all in the Senate except for Ed [Murray], and he isn't on the transportation committee," Austin added. "In the House, we have Judy Clibborn, who's sometimes on our side, but there's also great transit advocates on her committee. In the Senate, we really have no one we can go to to help us move mountains."
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