This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
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Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
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Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
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Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.
The Narrows bridge advisory committee has made a good case that bridge tolls can remain where they are until 2010.
The citizens who advise state transportation leaders about Tacoma Narrows Bridge toll rates might find out today if their hard work was worth it.
The Narrows Bridge Toll Citizen Advisory Commission spent a lot of time this fall examining a request from the state Department of Transportation to raise bridge tolls in July.
The last toll hike took effect in July and was supposed to be good for two years. But transportation officials, taking note of a summer drop in bridge traffic, were worried that they wouldn’t have enough money to meet the new bridge’s debt payments and ongoing maintenance and operations costs.
Thanks largely to the advisory committee’s diligence in digging deep and pressing the transportation department for additional information, it was able to make a good case that the state can afford to leave tolls at their current levels until at least 2010.
That recommendation is now in the hands of the Washington Transportation Commission, which meets today to discuss Narrows bridge tolls. Should the commission opt for higher tolls, the final decision would rest with the Legislature, which under Initiative 960 must approve fee increases.
How the commission proceeds will have implications not just for Narrows bridge users and the Gig Harbor peninsula, but for future tolling projects in other parts of the state.
If state officials are surprised by the Narrows committee members’ appetite for detailed accountability, they haven’t seen anything yet. Tolls are in the offing for the Highway 520 floating bridge and probably the Alaskan Way Viaduct. It’s likely that the Narrows advisory model will be duplicated for those projects.
The Transportation Commission, should it dismiss the citizens committee’s recommendation for less than compelling reasons, could be sending the message that such groups have little influence. That would make policy makers’ ability to sell new tolls even harder.
The Narrows advisory committee has done its job. Now it’s up to the Washington Transportation Commission to take the advice seriously.
COMMENTS:
In 2010 we will likely see tolling start on Lake Washington, due the strong support for congestion relief offered through variable pricing. This support was roughly 2-1 in both web surveys and a scientific phone poll.
Narrows Bridge tolls should be looked at for regional consistency on that same time frame. That doesn't mean they should be the same as the tolls on Lake Washington, I'd hope they'd be lower, but that there should be a consistent rationale for the pricing strategy that is driven by market realities, not bureaucrating budgeteering.
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