A majority of C-Tran’s board of directors appears to be ready to give local voters a direct say over the future of a new Columbia River Crossing.
The $3.6 billion project won a key endorsement earlier this week when a high-level advisory committee backed a 10-lane replacement for the existing Interstate 5 Bridge. However, the co-director of the crossing project said this week that the bridge won’t get built unless C-Tran comes up with an estimated $2 million to $3 million per year to operate an extension of Portland’s light-rail transit system through downtown Vancouver.
And that will require voters on the Washington side of the river to boost the sales tax next year.
“It’s one project,” said Don Wagner, Washington co-director of the bistate crossing office. “And if a vote were to occur that said, ‘No’ to that $2 million, then, no, I can’t move forward.”
Voters will not be asked to construct the line, simply to operate and maintain it.
Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, a longtime advocate of light rail, said he believes voters will see they’re getting a good deal and approve the measure. “I think it’s fair to say a one-penny sales tax increase on a $10 purchase is pretty minimal to support the future of public transit in our community,” he said.
However, C-Tran’s board isn’t going to make it easy.
Until recently, C-Tran officials had proposed bundling the money necessary to operate light rail with a 0.3 percent sales tax increase that would include a potpourri of transit improvements throughout the county. The idea was to broaden the measure so that voters in Battle Ground, for example, would directly benefit from enhanced bus service with a successful vote. In return, light rail would be extended to downtown Vancouver.
Now, it appears a majority of the nine-member C-Tran board is prepared to ask voters separately about light rail.
That could make it much more difficult to pass. Light rail remains a hot-button issue in Clark County, where voters rejected a 6-mile extension from Portland to 99th Street by a 2-1 margin in 1995.
During a meeting of the C-Tran board on Tuesday evening, La Center mayor Jim Irish and Battle Ground city Councilor Bill Ganley both signaled their support for a resolution passed by the three Clark County commissioners last week. The commissioners, who also serve on the C-Tran board, called for C-Tran to split a proposed ballot measure in two — one to preserve and enhance existing bus service and one to add high-capacity transit.
“I think it’s simple, I think it’s clear,” Ganley said. “I’m ready to take it to the voters.”
In total, C-Tran anticipates asking voters to boost the sales tax by 0.3 percent sometime next year.
The bus-oriented portion — two-tenths of a percent — would preserve existing bus service, add new routes and enhance the C-Van paratransit service. The other one-tenth of a percent would go to high-capacity transit, which would be evenly split between construction of a new bus rapid transit line along Fourth Plain Boulevard and money to operate light rail. The light rail line — including the tracks, three park-and-ride lots and 16 new train sets — would be paid by the overall crossing project, with the bulk of the money coming from the Federal Transit Administration.
But federal officials won’t provide at least $750 million to build the line without assurance that C-Tran can operate it. And that’s no sure thing, Wagner said.
“Two million dollars to the voters — to you or me — is a lot of money,” he said.
Even though state and local officials are focused on convincing voters to say “yes,” they concede that there may be backup alternatives before they’d pull the plug on a multibillion-dollar highway and transit project that spans two states. Last year, Wagner alluded to the possibility of lawmakers directing a portion of bridge toll revenue toward operating light rail.
“Would the city of Vancouver, for instance, want to take it on?” said Scott Patterson, C-Tran’s director of development and public affairs. “There’s lots of questions. It would be a decision the C-Tran board of directors would need to make after a failed ballot measure as to what the next steps would be.”
Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.
