Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly. |
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closeThe Washington Policy Center’s Blog is reporting that a draft analysis by the state Office of Financial Management indicates Tim Eyman’s traffic congestion initiative would cost the state general fund $620 million over five years.
The impact on the budget deficit facing lawmakers in January would be about $290 million, which is what we reported here a month ago.
The agency is expected to publicly release a formal analysis in the weeks to come.
The initiative, in part, would direct 15 percent of all taxes collected on the sale of new and used vehicles into an account that would support traffic programs to synchronize traffic lights, open car pool lanes and pay for more highway crews to clear accidents.
That would cost the state general fund $52.5 million during what would be left of the 2007-09 budget cycle and $238 million for the next two-year budget cycle.
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