A sign in the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board's office succinctly sums up the state of today's global economy: "We are competing with everyone, everywhere, every day, forever."
It is with this in mind that we wanted to pass along a great piece written by Jordan Royer in today's Crosscut highlighting how the lack of infrastructure investments is one of the biggest economic challenges faced by Washington state.
Citing two nationally recognized speakers at the Port of Tacoma's recent annual breakfast, Royer wrote, "Both agreed that the greatest threat to our economic well-being is a crumbling and increasingly unreliable transportation infrastructure. [Walter] Kemmsies [Chief Economist for Moffat and Nichol] put it bluntly when he said that our transportation infrastructure 'sucks.'"
Royer goes on to note that partisan bickering in Olympia is not helping. "Unfortunately, building infrastructure is not something we seem to do either quickly or efficiently," he wrote. "Fiscal conservatives don’t want to spend money to rebuild or upgrade roads and bridges. Liberals support a dizzying array of permit requirements and processes that make it longer to permit a project then to build it. By contrast, Canada uses a number of creative funding and development mechanisms to build what they need to keep their economy going..."
Given that our competitors are stepping up to the plate, it is time for lawmakers to publically to declare whether they support a transportation revenue package. As Royer asks, "So, do we invest in infrastructure to repair and enhance our competitive edge? Or do we watch both crumble and slip away?"