It this case, the wheel was Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, who’s been telling his colleagues that he wouldn’t support another round of tax increases in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties to pay for light rail if the line doesn’t get as far north as Lynnwood.

The new, 15-year plan unveiled Thursday would extend light rail to Lynnwood by 2023.

The 18 members of Sound Transit’s board will study the new proposal, as well as several others, for two weeks. They plan to meet July 24 to decide what plan they will send to voters and whether they will do so this November or in 2010.

The newest plan would raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent in most of the three counties. That would help pay for an additional 34 miles of light rail, add 90,000 hours of regional bus service, and increase the frequency and size of Sounder commuter trains between Tacoma, Seattle and Everett. Sound Transit officials say the new tax would cost an adult $69 a year, in addition to the sales and car taxes that are being used to pay for the first round of regional bus and rail service.

Sound Transit is scheduled to open its light-rail line from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport in late 2009.

Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson said she thinks there’s enough in the new 15-year plan to recommend it to voters. So does Sumner Councilman Dave Enslow. Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, immediate past president of the Sound Transit executive board, said he’s not sure yet.

Like Reardon, Ladenburg was unhappy with the 12-year plans the board has been considering for the past several months.

Neither plan – one has a 0.4 percent sales tax, the other a 0.5 percent sales tax – would bring the light-rail line into Pierce County. In fact, the southernmost station on the light-rail line by 2020 would be at Highline Community College in South King County.

It would take a third vote – years from now – and new or extended taxes to build light rail to Tacoma.

Proposition 1, the $18 billion ballot measure that voters defeated last year, included $10.8 billion for transit and would have built light rail to Tacoma by 2028.

Ladenburg said that plan is still in the mix.

Reardon said he’s opposed the 2020 plans because they would provide a lot of bus and rail service to King County, so much that King County voters seemingly would have little reason to vote in favor of a third ballot measure to extend rail in Snohomish and Pierce counties.

“That’s why I’m pushing hard to get rail to Lynnwood in this one,” he said.

All of the plans call for building light rail to Northgate in Seattle, to Redmond on the Eastside and to South 200th Street in South King County.

The 15-year plan would pay for $10.4 billion worth of capital and operating costs as stated in today’s dollars. Those costs would be $14.6 billion when taking inflation into account.

Sound Transit officials said a commuter in 2023 would be able to ride a light-rail train from Highline Community College to Safeco Field in downtown Seattle in 37 minutes.

The 15-year plan also would set aside enough money to buy about half of the property needed to extend the rail line through Federal Way and into Tacoma and to pay for preliminary engineering for that stretch, but not enough to build any of it.

Some matching funds would be made available to Tacoma if the city wanted to extend its streetcar line either to Tacoma General Hospital or to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians’ planned resort around the Emerald Queen Casino on the East Side of Tacoma.

In the meantime, Pierce County would get more frequent bus service to downtown Seattle and the airport, Sounder trains that would carry more commuters, and improvements to stations in Puyallup, Tacoma and Sumner.

Joseph Turner: 360-786-1826

blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics

WHAT’S AT STAKE

Sound Transit’s board is set to decide July 24 on a plan for extending light rail and bus service in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties and whether to ask voters for new taxes this fall or in 2010. Here are four plans now in the mix, although the board may choose parts of all four for its final proposal to voters.

Plan 1: Raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent. Build 49.5 miles of light rail by 2028.

Plan 2a: Raise the sales tax by 0.4 percent. Build 18 miles of light rail by 2020.

Plan 2b: Raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent. Build 23 miles of light rail by 2020.

Plan 3: Raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent. Build 34 miles of light rail by 2023.