AWC Legislative Bulletin - Volume 31, No. 3
|
|
2007-2009 |
2009-2011 |
16 years | |
|
Total State Accounts |
($70 M) |
($115 M) |
($631 M) |
|
TIB and CRAB accounts |
($7 M) |
($12 M) |
($67 M) |
|
Cities and Counties |
($13 M) |
($22 M) |
($128 M) |
To put this in context, the Transportation Partnership Act (TPA) one cent gas tax distribution to cities and counties is approximately $74 million per biennium—almost one third of it has been eroded due to declining revenues. In addition, the doubling (or more) of inflation over the past four years has negated the gains from the TPA.
In order to fulfill a state legislative reporting requirement, the Association of Washington Cities and the Department of Transportation - Highways and Local Programs Division, jointly collects arterial street pavement condition data. For 2008, we are required to report on the condition of 85% of the total arterial network throughout the state. AWC staff uses this information when meeting with our legislators to explain how we manage our system and to point out our need for state participation in maintaining our arterial system. For more information, please contact Bob Brooks at BrookBo@wsdot.wa.gov.
The 2007 Transportation Budget included a proviso requiring cities to report on whether or not they had established an Access Management Plan along state highways within city limits. The reporting requirement is to be completed by the end of this year. To date, approximately 55% of affected cities have complied with this requirement and 34% have not responded to our outreach.
AWC staff will be contacting the remaining cities in the next few weeks in order to fulfill this requirement. For more information on access management requirements, please refer to: www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/LandUse/accessonstatehighways and to www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/88BFFDA6-9EF1-4B2D-8425-0633D9C59C47/0/CityResponsetoManagedAccessProviso.pdf for the status of how your city has responded to this requirement.
Section 1022 of the 2008 Capital Budget (ESHB 2765) has resulted in a budget proviso requiring the Office of Financial Management (OFM) to develop an Infrastructure Investment Plan by December 2008. Key features of the proviso are to review infrastructure programs within the Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development, the Department of Health, and the Department of Ecology and assess how well they align with state priorities.
In addition, the proviso requires an assessment of revenue needed to support infrastructure funding within the respective programs. OFM staff has included a representative from the AWC and county association as part of its initial stakeholder outreach.
The Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) is seeking comments on the two proposed statutory amendments. One would eliminate mitigation banking project eligibility for grants in the Urban Wildlife Habitat, Critical Habitat, and Riparian Protection categories of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP) and the second proposes revisions to a 28-year old state law requiring the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board (Board) to give preference to park projects in or near urban areas.
With regard to the first proposal, the RCO recognizes the importance of mitigation banking and supports other efforts that explore how to improve the current mitigation banking approach. After analysis of a WWRP mitigation banking pilot project; however, the RCO has concluded that for financial, legal, philosophical, and other practical reasons, mitigation banking is not a good fit for the WWRP program.
Regarding the second proposal, the RCO wants to preserve the intent of this law, placing parks near people, while updating the statute to better reflect modern planning approaches and recreation needs. Please go to www.rco.wa.gov for more details. The comment deadline for both these proposals is August 12, 2008.