Warning, toll revenue cliff ahead. Tacoma Narrows Bridge users need stronger voice
Lighter traffic on Washington roadways may seem like one of the few positive trends to emerge from the wreckage of the 2020 pandemic, as society suddenly switched to working, learning and shopping at home.
But even this upside has a steep downside. A crash in Puget Sound toll revenue is causing unforeseen problems for state transportation planners — and a projected $72 million bill (so far) that taxpayers and tollpayers must confront around the corner, coming at us like high beams in the fog.
That includes Tacoma Narrows Bridge drivers, though the impact here isn’t as severe as it will be for toll projects serving Seattle and Eastside King County.
Ideally, this would be a time for Pierce and Kitsap county residents to stay informed and get involved. Voices should be heard on both the Gig Harbor and Tacoma sides of the bridge, because many questions are up in the air:
Will tolls go up to cover the shortfall? Should the state spend down bridge emergency reserves or restructure debt? And the most fundamental question of all: Can bridge communities trust officials in Olympia to protect their interests at a time when state revenues, including the gas tax, are tanking?
Enter the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee. Embedded in state law, this nine-member group of local volunteers is supposed to provide a community sounding board and advise the state Transportation Commission on appropriate toll charges.
The trouble is, the committee has shriveled to a skeleton of its former self. It has just three members — none from the Tacoma side of the bridge — and six vacancies.
It hasn’t met since January, before COVID-19 turned the world upside down. It can’t muster the statutory quorum of five members needed to meet in open session, so it’s triumvirate has to get informal updates from state transportation officials -- no members of the public or news media present.
This is no way to run an advisory panel. Local leaders need to recruit viable candidates, and Gov. Jay Inslee should appoint at least two or three new members by early next year.
The Narrows Bridge situation is messy, but it represents a small part of the regional toll meltdown. Collectively, the state estimates 45 percent less revenue than what it had forecast collecting between March and October, according to a Seattle Times report last week. The worst of it centers on the state Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington and the state Route 99 tunnel in downtown Seattle.
Because there are fewer alternate routes for people crossing the Narrows Bridge, its toll revenues have dropped less — roughly 18 percent.
Pre-pandemic plans had already called for a 25-cent bump in bridge tolls next summer, the first increase in six years. Under a good deal negotiated by Pierce County legislators last year, that one-time rate hike was designed to pay off a $13.3 million loan from state gas tax funds and meet debt payments on the eastbound bridge for the 2021-23 biennium.
The size of that loan is now expected to double to between $25 and $30 million, possibly more.
Does that foreshadow a larger toll increase? Not if you ask state Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, who chairs the House Transportation Committee.
Fey told us Wednesday that he’ll advocate sticking with the 2019 legislative compromise: Don’t raise tolls after 2021, and tack all additional loan payments on the back end of the bridge’s debt, which is supposed to close out 10 years from now.
“My sense is that deal kind of stands, that we simply extend whatever loan is necessary,” Fey said. “It may mean that tolls will last a bit longer. But that seems to me the fairest way to continue. It’s not through anyone’s fault that this situation exists.”
We can’t argue with his conclusion, but what does the public think? Without a functional advisory committee, good luck finding out.
Fey is among those who question whether the committee has outlived its usefulness. If toll rates are frozen, then a toll advisory panel may have no purpose, he reasons.
But Washington law has something to say about that. The committee is tasked with giving input on other matters, such as the feasibility of toll discounts for frequent users, seniors or students; the tradeoff of lower tolls versus early debt retirement; and consideration of variable pricing at different times of day, which other state toll facilities have.
Beyond that, we see one overriding reason why this committee is needed: To keep faith with bridge communities.
Unlike beneficiaries of other Washington transportation megaprojects, Narrows Bridge users are paying 100 percent of the $800 million bridge cost through their tolls. They’ve been paying for more than 13 years, and they’ll pay at least another decade.
Until that day comes, their voices should be heard. Revive the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee, and rebuild it to full strength.
HOW TO APPLY
Anyone interested in serving on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee can fill out an application form by clicking this link.