We'd been hopeful that transportation leaders in Olympia would be able to work out a compromise transportation revenue package before the end of the year. There have been reports of regular, substantive meetings between the governor, chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House transportation committees and key staffers, sometimes two or even three times a week. The Seattle Times has reported on the negotiations here, here and here, as has The News Tribune here, here and here.

The goal, as expressed by several of the negotiators, was to come to an agreement on what the package should look like by the end of the year so that the Legislature could act on it during the first few weeks of January. Unfortunately, reports indicate that negotiations have bogged down over the last week. Negotiators met on Monday and are scheduled to meet again on Wednesday, but insiders have expressed pessimism about the prospects of coming to agreement.

This begins to make us wonder whether Larry Ehl, editor of Transportation Issues Daily, is a modern multi-modal Cassandra. Early this year, writing about the impressive freight mobility investment's being made in British Columbia, Canada, Ehl declared: “Here is the quote that should make Washington State port and trade officials nervous and should make Washington State legislators think twice about punting a transportation investment bill to 2014 or 2015: ‘This is not about building transportation infrastructure. The real story is that we are building instruments of trade…The corridor project is the precursor to further expansion westward from the current container terminal footprint, and offers up the foundation for the more long-range prospect of Container Port expansion.’”

Ehl pondered whether and how lawmakers in Olympia would respond. “Unfortunately, it’s no stretch to believe that this time next year I’ll be writing about another record year for Port Metro Vancouver, [and] no new funding for SR 167 and SR 509..." Alas, it looks like he is right. Metro Port Vancouver's cargo volumes are up 4 percent over 2012 as of November while Puget Sound's are down 2.7 percent.

Let's hope that lawmakers, seeing a slight rebound in the economy, have not become complacent about jobs. Because while we wait in Washington for critical economic development investments that will preserve our state's competitiveness, BC, Mexico, California, Florida, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia are making those investments in a frightening attempt to win cargo and jobs for their constituents.

Once again we must ask: what will be Washington's response?