Rosellini's '60s toll idea deserves another look

Remember the old saying: Hindsight is 20-20?

If only Washington voters had followed Gov. Albert Rosellini’s tolling plan to build, maintain and replace our state’s major bridges, we would have replacement funds today.

Now, lawmakers in Olympia are scrambling to find the billions needed for the new I-5 bridge connecting Vancouver and Portland. Predictably, tolling needs to be included in the funding scheme, but it is still a political hot button.

Rosellini, the Seattle Democrat elected governor in 1956, staked his political career on tolling. In the early 1960s, he proposed four new toll bridge...