By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
Cheney Mayor Tom Trulove is part of a new task force with a big task: fix state funding for transportation.
Gov. Chris Gregoire earlier this month announced appointments for the Connecting Washington Task Force, a group charged with developing a 10-year funding plan for the state's transportation system.
Trulove, who is also chair of the Economics department at Eastern Washington University, said he's looking forward to tackling the problem of transportation funding in the state.
“If we're successful it's likely to represent a shift in transportation policy in the state from what we've done in the past,” he said. “That's pretty exciting to be a part of something so important.”
The group of 27 members, made up of legislators, business leaders and transportation experts, met for the first time this past Tuesday. In an interview last week, Trulove said he would try to represent the interests of cities as well as Eastern Washington on the task force.
“Certainly I have to worry about cities,” he said. “We have to make sure that whatever package emerges addresses some of those Eastern Washington needs.”
The main goal of the task force is to prioritize transportation projects and identify potential funding sources. Identifying funding for new transportation projects is a major challenge, Trulove said. Gas taxes set aside for transportation are almost entirely devoted to paying the debt of current and past projects.
“There's going to be a lot of talk I think about tolling and things like that as ways to fund new projects,” he said.
The task force will meet again in September, with the aim to present some sort of package to the Legislature in October. Trulove said he had worked with more than half the members of the task force in the past and he was hopeful about the goals of the group.
“The idea here is to do more than talk and talk and talk,” he said. “It's to get some things done.”
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)