Thrice-elected Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) will stand down rather than run for an unprecedented fourth term. When he departs the governor’s mansion in January 2025, the Democratic governor will have spent 12 years as Washington’s chief executive.
Governors have great latitude in setting transportation policy in state capitols around the country, affecting the future of gas tax rates, transit service, highway expansion, and the rollout of the 2021 federal infrastructure law.
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Washington, with a population that grew every year between 2010 and 2021, offers a test case in the future of transportation policy. In the nation’s northwest corner and sharing a 427-mile border with Canada, Washington is increasingly a living destination for disgruntled California residents and those in other places with high costs of living — in no small part due to its lack of state income tax.
So how has transportation fared under Inslee? And might that transportation policy record be a key to voters’ decision in November 2024 on who should be the state’s next governor?
The national “27th Annual Highway Report,” released in April by the Reason Foundation, gives his state low marks for its roads. Washington ranks 46 out of 50 states and has slipped recently.
The report explained that the state’s “costs are disproportionately high and the biggest driver of its poor overall rankings.” Washington’s spending on road maintenance, capital projects, and bridges per lane is the most expensive in the country and much more money than neighboring Oregon spends on comparable projects.
Moreover, Washingtonians aren’t seeing much bang for that buck, on highways or on byways. “4.10% of Washington’s rural Interstate pavement is in poor condition, 6.2 times more than Oregon’s,” the report states. “17.50% of Washington’s urban arterial pavement is in poor condition, 2.3 times more than Oregon’s [pavement].”
The governor’s office wouldn’t stipulate to the report’s findings about Washington’s transportation record. Jaime Smith, Inslee’s executive director of communications, said, in reality, it’s one to be proud of.
“We haven’t reviewed the report or its methodology, so it’s difficult to comment on this specific ranking,” Smith told the Washington Examiner. “There are significant investments underway across the state to improve roadway safety and provide more efficient, greener transportation options, thanks to the Connecting Washington and Move Ahead Washington packages from 2015 and 2022.”
Yet there are also other worrying trends only hinted at in the “Highway Report.” The Washington Traffic Safety Commission, in particular, is worried about vehicle fatalities on Washington roads. The website declares the state a “national leader in traffic safety” and casts a “vision … to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2030.”
But that’s a trend currently headed in the other direction. Vehicular fatalities in the state have risen markedly over the last decade, which happens to overlap Inslee’s tenure. There were 436 fatalities on Washington roads in 2013, according to the WTSC dashboard. Last year, the number of fatalities came to 750.
Connecting Washington and Move Ahead Washington are initiatives Inslee championed and signed into law. As with many infrastructure bills championed by Democrats in recent years, they both make a great deal of money available for broad categories of “transportation” and “infrastructure” but don’t particularly prioritize improving the state’s roads for drivers.
Democratic state Sen. Marko Liias, architect of the almost $17 billion Move Ahead Washington package of bills, said, “Washington is a nationwide leader on so many issues, and we can continue to show our progressive values in the transportation sector. From letting kids ride free on transit and ferries, to increasing public transit options, and investing in pedestrian and road safety projects, this is a win for our entire state,” according to the Center Square newswire.
To fund projects motivated by the state’s progressive values, the Washington legislature also enacted a cap-and-trade carbon tax that has started to hike prices at the gas pump this year.
The average price of a regular gallon of gas in the state stood at $4.58 on May 10, according to numbers compiled by AAA. That was more than $1 above the national average of $3.55 and the fourth-highest average pump price in the nation, behind California, Hawaii, and Arizona.
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The dysfunction of Washington transportation doesn’t appear to be a motivating factor for the ruling Democrats who have announced bids for the governorship — so far, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz.
For Republicans, who have not won the Washington governorship since 1980, the high cost and low quality of Washington’s roads could be a tempting wedge issue. Perhaps they can use it to tempt independent voters to start their internal combustion engines.
