Issue Position: A New Direction for Transportation Policy

Issue Position

It's the Puget Sound region's nervous system. It either drives economic growth, or hinders it. It either gets us to work and our kids to school on time or it becomes an exercise in hair pulling. Each bus, rail, ferry, and transit corridor tendrils out like a web: When that web bunches and snaps because of poor planning or an unwillingness to invest in key infrastructure, it falls on lawmakers to step up.

For fifteen years, Ed Murray has made the tough decisions and delivered. He's worked hard to enact comprehensive, far-sighted transportation policies and projects that weave together issues of growth, environmental protection, administration, sustainability, and housing. He has consistently stepped up without fear and with a willingness to think ten, twenty, and fifty years into the future.

Our transportation vision must track with the needs of future generations, Ed believes, not with the next election cycle.

Take a look:

Progressive Transportation Funding Alternatives

Prime Sponsor, House Transportation Budget - Including a 5 cent gas tax

Ushered through the legislature a bipartisan 5 cent gas tax, creating the first new funding for transportation and transit projects in over a decade. Funding went towards completion of 13 new projects, 8 of which were finished on time, and 4 of which were finished under budget, putting thousands of people to work.

Prime Sponsor, House Transportation Budget - Including a 9.5 cent gas tax

Brought together communities and legislators to pass a bipartisan vote on the largest increase in transportation and transit funding in state history. Funding contributed towards not just new roads and increasing capacity, but to light rail, ferries, and other transit oriented projects.

"This is a huge project. It'll put a lot of people to work - in the tens of thousands," Rick Bender - President, Washington State Labor Council

Growing Transit

Prime Sponsor SHB 2124 - 2005 Session - Increasing state participation in public transportation service and planning

Created the office of transit mobility within DOT to ensure the integration of transit systems in an effort to connect and coordinate transit services and to improve the efficiency of transit corridors. Also provided multi-modal funds for transit services.

Prime Sponsor SHB 1541 - 2005 Session - Enacting the Transportation Innovative Partnerships Act

Prime Sponsor of the Innovative Partnerships Program, enabling the department of Transportation to undertake cutting-edge projects for transit oriented development at ferry terminals, and partnerships for alternative fueling and electricity charging services along interstates.

Prime Sponsor ESHB 2228 - 2003 Session - Extending commute trip reduction incentives

Lead the state's investment in alternatives to workday commutes in the creation of the Commute Trip Reduction Tax Credit and Grant Program. This program has worked to reduce harmful greenhouse emissions and unclog streets during the busiest times of the day.

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