Public works

Urban and Rural Grant Program applications will be out soon

As noted in previous Bulletins, the Legislature provided partial replacement of the Public Works Assistance Account with a $9.5M Urban Grant Program and a $9.5M Rural Public Works Program. The Public Works Board is expected to release the grant applications for both programs in the first week of August. Please note the turnaround time for these applications is short: September 8 is the deadline.

"Dig Law" Workgroup is underway

The Utilities and Transportation Commission has convened a workgroup of public owners, contractors, and private companies to review the state law (RCW 19.122) governing pipeline safety. The UTC’s stated objective is to review state damage prevention programs because of the specter of strong Congressional oversight on pipeline safety and to improve communications with stakeholders. At this point, UTC has convened the workgroup once and the first step has been to inventory how well the "call before you dig" law is working. The second meeting is scheduled on August 18.

From an AWC point of view, we are participating in the workgroup because of safety concerns and because any changes to RCW 19.122 could impact how we manage all our underground utilities. Last session, ESHB 1996 was introduced that could have changed the definition of unlocatable underground facility. We expect this discussion to occur at a future UTC meeting. AWC would like to thank Ed Moore from the City of Everett for participating on the workgroup and Steve Reynolds (Kent), and Dave Christensen (Renton) for attending the first meeting.

Economic development

Local revitalization financing update

In June, AWC and the Department of Revenue hosted an interactive webinar (http://cornerstoneleadershiponline.com/AWC-TEMP/) that went over the requirements of the new Local Revitalization Financing Tool. As a follow-up, the Department of Revenue has completed the Demonstration Project Application (www.awcnet.org/documents/NR_LRF_projects7109.pdf). This will be very similar to the first come, first served application. Please continue to check our website for new LRF information.

The Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development now officially the Department of Commerce

Although the agency has officially changed names, it will remain fundamentally the same for the next few months. Mr. Rogers Weed, the new Director, is required to provide a report by November 1 that will recommend a core mission and structural changes to the agency. In preparation for the report, Mr. Weed has been barnstorming Washington State with a series of listening sessions. In addition to the broad outreach throughout Washington State, Mr. Weed had a city only session at our Annual Conference as well as another session in Olympia.

Solicitation for Innovative Partnership Zones

The Department of Commerce recently released the official competitive solicitation for the 2009 Innovation Partnership Zones (IPZ) designation. Notification was sent to all eligible applicants, including cities, counties, ports, workforce development councils, and economic development councils.

The Innovation Partnership Zones (IPZ) program was created in 2007 by Governor Gregoire and the Washington State Legislature, through SHB 1091. IPZs are part of the state’s efforts to stimulate growth of industry clusters within specific geographic areas, much like a research park environment. Although having an IPZ designation does not guarantee funding, Commerce will be making and publishing an application for a competitive grant process for IPZ designees in the near future.

The application due date is August 31, 2009. Application materials can be downloaded at www.cted.wa.gov/IPZ.

Transportation

AWC staff has been meeting with legislators throughout the summer to continue our focus on our top 2010 transportation priorities: a street utility bill and revisions to the current law transportation benefit districts. AWC would like to thank Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) for her public support on working the street utility issue at the recent Suburban Cities Association meeting. At the state and national level, Congress, the State Transportation Committee’s and the Transportation Commission have been busy this summer.

Congress moving federal transportation legislation

The House and Senate have just approved a $7 Billion transfer from their general fund to ensure the Highway Trust Fund remains solvent through September of this year. We are currently operating under SAFETEA-LU, which is the 2004-2009 federal transportation act. The Senate and Obama administration support an 18 month extension of SAFETEA-LU. However, in the House, there is still a push for funding a six-year bill from Representative Oberstar. In the meantime, the House has passed its 2010 transportation spending bill with small overall increases. The Senate should be debating its 2010 bill as the Bulletin goes to print. Regardless of an agreed upon 2010 spending bill, it should be noted that the Highway Trust Fund will immediately begin facing a revenue shortfall for the 2010 federal fiscal year due to declining gas tax receipts.

Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee

The House and Senate Joint Transportation Committee (JTC) have been tasked with reviewing alternative transportation funding methods for the statewide transportation system. This is in recognition that the gas tax is a diminishing revenue stream and that the national trend is to move toward more user based methods of capturing transportation revenue. At this early stage, a white paper of current and emerging policy initiatives has been drafted and presented to the JTC. The structure is to look at near term funding (the next six years), medium term funding (the next 16 years in accordance with the state transportation budget scenarios) and long term (beyond 16 years). AWC staff is on the technical committee that is preparing the work products.

Washington State Transportation Commission

The "Commission" is charged in state and federal law with updating Washington’s Transportation Plan (WTP), which is a 20 year look at our overall transportation system. The Commission expects the WTP update to take about 18 months; they are currently in the information gathering stage. AWC presented on urban transportation systems before the Commission on July 16. We would like to thank the nearly 80 cities that responded to our survey in order to prepare for the meeting. Key findings that were provided to the Commission were:

The city transportation network will remain relatively the same over the next 30 years (except for annexations.)
Dependence on the automobile will continue. However, given the fixed nature of the transportation network, there will be significant dependence on transit use, and the need for complete pedestrian and bicycle networks.
Most of you stated you will need to change your comprehensive plans to accommodate state climate change goals during your next update cycle.

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