Now that the state Department of Transportation is on board with letting drivers use the I-405 express toll lanes for free at night and on weekends, the next step is getting it done.
A group of Republican senators and Gov. Jay Inslee think the Legislature needs to put the change into law. But a key House Democrat disagrees and thinks the agency can handle it on its own.
“Legislators created this tolling statute,” Inslee said in an interview. “They defined it. They designed it. If they want to change that they need to change it through legislation.”
A bill to do that passed the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday. It would require travel in the toll lanes at no cost to all drivers between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. weekdays, on weekends and on state and federal holidays. Senate Bill 6152 also deems the express toll lanes to be a two-year pilot project and orders collection of tolls to end Sept. 27, 2017.
If it passes the Senate, it would go to the House Transportation Committee where the chairwoman, Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, is unlikely to consider it.
She has repeatedly said no bill is needed because the department can open up the toll lanes to all vehicles for free at night and on weekends administratively. She and 10 other Democratic lawmakers said as much in a letter they sent this week to Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson.
Department officials said they must consult with federal highway authorities and the state Transportation Commission to determine the process for making such a change.
Inslee discussed the issue at breakfast with legislative leaders Wednesday morning.
“This morning they said both that there’s a bill they’re thinking about bringing from the Senate but that it mirrored the letter from Rep. (Judy) Clibborn,” David Postman, Inslee’s chief of staff said Wednesday. “So what they told the governor is ‘We really don’t know what our next step is but we’ll be in touch with WSDOT’.”
Stay tuned.
This story has been modified to correct that Rep. Judy Clibborn did not attend the breakfast meeting Wednesday.
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