MAX funding fight blazes anew in Vancouver, Washington.
After the last attempt to replace the I-5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver stalled out due to Clark County Republicans’ opposition to bringing MAX light rail across the river, proponents hoped to have better luck, but a similar debate is erupting.
The new plan sought to keep the MAX on the bridge and sidestep the political quagmires and overcome Republican opposition. Even two decades later, Republicans are just as opposed. Despite the opposition, a freeway-running MAX light rail line into Clark County is slated to be part of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project.
However, C-Tran, the transit agency responsible for operating buses in Clark County, is lukewarm on the project. C-Tran’s initial position toward the MAX was that they wouldn’t oppose its inclusion on the bridge, but they also would have no part in paying for either the capital costs or the operating expenses.
In December, Tri-Met revealed the full anticipated operating expenses for the MAX extension into Vancouver estimated at $21.8 million per year and they requested that C-Tran cover $6.8 million of that cost per year. In response, after some debate, the C-Tran Board of Directors voted to allow themselves to pay for some of the MAX operating expenses. They did not commit to an amount or funding mechanism and with the completion of the IBR still so far into the future, there was a lot of time to negotiate on both of those fronts.
If they covered the full amount Tri-Met asked for, MAX operating costs would represent around 6% of C-Tran’s projected 2025 operating budget. C-Tran would either need to come up with additional funding for the project or consider cutting back on the bus network they are building out.
One of the most likely solutions currently on the table for funding would be for Vancouver’s existing special transportation district to put a levy on the ballot to raise sales taxes in the city of Vancouver to cover the cost of the MAX. That would allow C-Tran to proceed with supporting the MAX without burdening taxpayers in the other Clark County cities who have been deeply opposed to the MAX for a long time.
Conservative backlash
Some conservatives in Clark County reacted very strongly to the news that Clark County taxpayers may be on the hook for the MAX as two city councils, Camas and Battle Ground, passed resolutions in response opposing light rail on the bridge entirely. The opposition campaign took advantage of the change in administration and the federal government’s changed outlook toward rail projects and began rallying against the decision. Republican state legislators ramped up their questioning of the inclusion of light rail or active transportation in the project.
