Alternative Sex

The vote came late Thursday as an amendment to the new supplemental state transportation budget. It reversed a House Transportation Committee vote from earlier this week that had essentially scuttled the tunnel option in favor of a replacement double-decker freeway along the Seattle waterfront.

The committee, concerned about the cost and the perceived foot-dragging over the design, had set an April 1 deadline for tunnel backers to identify financing for the project. That would have all but eliminated the option.

The state budget office would do an independent review of tunnel financing plans and Gov. Chris Gregoire would decide by Jan. 1 whether the tunnel is financially feasible.

Murray, a Democrat whose district includes the project, said he favors a tunnel, but agrees that financing must be identified and that state and local officials must quickly decide on how to proceed.

"I think a lot of hard work and good ideas have gone into the tunnel option," Murray said. "Eliminating that option with only a month's notice would be unfair to the city and the people that could benefit from it.

"We need to address the concerns raised in Olympia while respecting Seattle's ability to determine what's right for their city. This is a fair compromise that will keep us moving forward."

Dickerson, who has mostly lost her voice to a bad cold, joked that her croaking wasn't because she had been strangled by angry Seattle officials.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and a City Council majority favor the tunnel. They see it as a chance to reconnect downtown with the waterfront and create new opportunities for recreation and development.

The viaduct is considered at risk if another major earthquake rumbles through the region. The magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake damaged it five years ago.

Rebuilding the viaduct is expected to cost $2 billion to $3.67 billion and take 11-12 years, according to state figures. The tunnel option would cost $3.7 billion to $4.5 billion, and take seven to 10 years.

The viaduct amendment is part of the transportation budget that cleared the House 85-13. The Senate has previously approved its own transportation budget plan and negotiators will now iron out the differences.

The House adds about $33 million to the existing two-year transportation budget of $4.6 billion. Murray said the proposal includes safety projects, repairs of mudslides and rockslide areas, 18 more state troopers and extra funds for energy and fuel costs and for rising costs of materials.

Some road projects, including a $32 million U.S. 101 safety project in the Port Angeles area, were added in the House budget, and others were dropped. The latter, Republicans complained bitterly, were three projects in Minority Leader Richard DeBolt's 20th District, including a $30 million anti-flooding project along Interstate 5 in the Centralia area.

DeBolt infuriated majority Democrats earlier this session by defending GOP campaign ads and mass mailings that portrayed Democrats as soft on sex offenders.

Washington residents discard more than one million televisions and computer monitors each year, according to the Department of Ecology. An average computer monitor contains six pounds of lead, which can seep into waterways and poison the environment.

The House also approved a Senate-passed bill to create a two-year study of alternatives to the state's high-stakes graduation exam, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

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