When Oregon's legislature approved borrowing $450 million to pay for "our share" of a new I-5 light rail bridge, it was contingent upon Washington's legislature doing the same - and they didn't. But one key aspect of Porkland and Oregon's grand plan was that tolling would pay most of the other unfunded costs, and that Washington, with its expertise in tolling, would set up that part of the infrastructure.
Now, ODOT's scrambling to figure out how to set up a tolling system, which would cost an additional, unspecified amount estimated in the tens of millions of dollars. Look for it to be closer to $100 million, in reality. And now, another problem has reared its head, up north:
Part of Kitzhaber's $2.8 billion Oregon-only CRC strategy, which calls for Oregon to fund the project without any contribution from Washington, seemed to be to hope that Democrats retook the Washington Senate, a result that could bring our northern neighbor's money and superior technical expertise back to the project.
That doesn't seem to have panned out, as Republican Jan Angel leads Democratic incumbent State Sen. Nathan Schlicher 52 percent to 48 percent, meaning that Republicans are likely to remain firmly in control of the Washington State Senate. Things just got a lot tougher for Oregon gov. Retread and his pals, as it's unlikely that Washington's Senate is going to be interested in funding or otherwise getting involved in the Oregon-only CRC project.
Once again, Washington saves Oregonians from our "leaders". They're just not that into you, governor.
