Thanks for your great article on transportation on page 6 of the March 6 edition. This is the topic that keeps me up at night as we are in a crisis. The transportation issue is so severe and complicated as it is caused by so many factors, including annexations, competing interests and with a huge difference in power balance.

Properly funding transportation is vital to our future.

The proposed state package is for 16 years and will take the state bonding capacity to the range of 90 percent. So it is not likely that there will be another package during that time. That is a long window to wait if your project is not in the package. The local/unincorporated roads were budgeted for about $375 million statewide over the next 16 years.

It is so sad. What does that mean?

It means that it does very little for the 1,500 miles of King County roads (the approximate distance as from the Canadian border to the Mexican border). These roads need $250 million more a YEAR than what is raised by only the unincorporated road tax.  The $375 million approximately statewide gives King County only $1.15 million…a far cry from the needed $250 million. So without the money to fix the roads, they will continue to get worse with no funding source in sight. This is awful.

The annexations over the last two decades have placed the tax base in the cities. Yet 93 percent of the roads stayed with the county while the funding sources went away. Even the bonds on a road did not go with the citizens who had been part of the original bond. So when areas incorporated, they no longer had to pay the payments on the existing bonds.  This only makes the problem worse.

Paying for the road repairs now will SAVE money over waiting 16 years and having the roads be in far worse condition. It is like a leaky roof — if it is not fixed, the cost of the damage repairs adds greatly to the cost. The “roof” needs to come off on this topic so people know why this is so important and keeping me awake at night.

As the legislators have their community meetings next weekend, they need to hear from citizens how important preserving our road system countywide is vital to all of us.  Emails to all members of the Legislature is important, too. Unincorporated roads need the funds to be properly maintained — now.

Kathy Lambert, King County Council member who represents the Redmond area