Lawmakers came into this year with news of cost overruns and potential funding issues. Chair of the House Transportation Committee, Democratic Representative Jake Fey of Tacoma and Ranking Republican on the Committee, Representative Andrew of Olympia appeared on The Impact to discuss the legislative response to the projected budget shortfalls and the ramifications for projects already in the pipeline.
“Well, I think the biggest one is Portage Bay.And in that case, it’s probably going to be, I mean, obviously we have to negotiate with the Senate, but it’s looking like we do a portion of the project with the funds that we have available,” said Fey.
“The solution that we saw last year that I’m glad didn’t happen in the governor’s budget this year was the solution to backfill, was to take money from other projects or push projects way out into the future. And that’s not fair to the commitments that were made previous,” said Barkis.
They also weighed in on the various bills to expand the use of automated speed cameras in Washington.