Op-ed in American Infrastructure Magazine
America’s economy has bounced back from the recession, and there’s no place where that is clearer than here in Washington state. We’re the largest per-capita exporter in the United States and we’re experiencing some of the strongest job growth and in-migration in the nation with more than 250,000 new jobs in the past four years. We’ve added almost 2 million Washingtonians over the last decade and we’re expecting another 1 million over the next four years.
That growth is great news for our economy, yet it’s causing growing pains in our transportation infrastructure, particularly in the populous Puget Sound region that surrounds Seattle.
We can’t afford to be victims of our own success or to take our economic prosperity for granted. Maintaining Washington’s competitive job growth and quality of life means we need to find ways to move more people and goods more efficiently.
That’s why one of my top priorities from day one as governor was to pass a new transportation investment package—a package that not only improves our roads and freeways, but promotes forward-looking strategies to build a 21st century transportation system that demonstrates we’re innovative and smart about how we use taxpayer dollars.
Together with a bipartisan team of legislative leaders, we delivered a historic $16 billion package last year that sets the stage for much-needed improvements throughout our state to boost safety and cut travel times for commuters and families and to help businesses transport their products reliably to storefronts and ports.
Read the full op-ed.here.