The Bellevue City Council did not take a position on Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1125 after a deadlocked vote Monday night.
The non-decision came after the council listened to a showdown over the issues between Eyman and 48th District Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina), the chair of the state Ways and Means committee. After more than an hour of discussion and testimony, three councilmembers – Conrad Lee, Don Davidson and Kevin Wallace indicated that they didn’t want to vote on the measure and that they would rather leave it to the people.
Three other members (John Chelminiak, Claudia Balducci and Grant Degginger), agitated by the debate, halted the discussion when they voted against a procedural motion to continue the meeting. They also criticized their fellow councilmembers for not taking a stand on the initiative they said will destroy many of the transportation projects the city has worked hard to put together over the last decade.
“This is not an out-there position to take,” Balducci said. “That fact that we’re struggling to take a position shows how far this council has drifted from being a transportation leader.”
Eyman’s initiative would restrict tolling measures set to be employed on the SR-520 bridge in December, and could potentially prevent light-rail from crossing the I-90 bridge. It would take toll-setting authority away from the seven-member appointee Transportation Commission. It would disallow variable tolling on the bridge, as is planned.
Tolls on the bridge, which will change in price by time of day, are expected to pay for approximately $1 billion of the $4.6 billion project.
The initiative has become a profile issue on the Eastside with powerful interests bankrolling the sides of the debate. Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman has been the primary donor to Eyman’s initiative at approximately $1 million. Donors to anti-1125 campaigns include Microsoft, the Seattle Mariners and Puget Sound Energy.
Eyman said his measure was important to protecting the integrity of toll funds from politicians who, he said, would like to use the money to pay for other projects, or as a new form of gas tax.
“People are hurting, and yet Olympia is moving forward with tolls that are just taxes by another name,” he said
Critics of the initiative, such as Hunter and Bellevue Downtown Association spokesman Patrick Bannon, said the elimination of variable tolling and putting the cost decisions in the hands of legislators will greatly increase the costs of borrowing.
They were upset by the consequences of increased traffic in an area that has quickly become one of the larger job centers in the state.
Councilmember Wallace felt much of the fear over 1125’s potential effect on the 520 bridge financing and light-rail on I-90 has been overblown. He showed frustration with the unelected Transportation Commission, saying he wanted more accountability in the process. From a city perspective, Wallace said it makes sense not to take a position, but as a voter he indicated support for the measure.
“My suspicion is the world is not going to be much different if it passes,” he said.
To Degginger, who called the initiative very sneaky, this was not the case. He was frustrated that it could be used as a mandate that the voters don’t want light-rail on the bridge, despite the fact that the words light-rail are not mentioned anywhere in the text of the initiative. Rather, the language states that the I-90 center lanes cannot be transferred to another organization for non-highway purposes.
“This isn’t even American, quite frankly,” he said. “If we’re going to have a vote on something, at least tell us what we’re voting on.”
