Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance shares Rep. John Ley’s allegations of light rail funding fraud and impact on Washington taxpayers

Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today

About five and a half years ago, then Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and then Oregon Gov. Kate Brown gathered in Vancouver and signed an agreement for the two states to work collectively to replace the Interstate 5 Bridge. In my opinion, that was the last time this project was a true partnership. 

If you look at the five and a half years since those two governors signed that memorandum of intent as a poker game, Washington has been dramatically outplayed by Oregon. For some reason, our state lawmakers have allowed Oregon to hold all the chips, even though I don’t concede that Oregon is holding the better cards. Consider this, prior to the pandemic about 75,000 Southwest Washington residents commuted into Oregon for employment. In 2022, 71,550 Clark County residents paid $250 million in Oregon income taxes according to a report from the Oregon Oregon Department of Revenue.

But the desire to preserve that income tax revenue from Southwest Washington residents isn’t Oregon’s primary focus in the negotiations for the I-5 Bridge replacement project. Rep. John Ley, in his first term as state representative for the 18th Legislative District, has worked tirelessly for more than a decade on a deep dive into the details of the current project and the failed Columbia River Crossing before that.  

Ley joined the Lars Larson Show this week to discuss what Oregon’s primary motivation is when it comes to the current proposed project that seems to heavily favor the state to our south. Ley is trying to raise awareness that the current proposal is not only designed to accommodate Oregon’s insistence that Trimet’s Max Yellow Line light rail be extended into Vancouver, but that the project helps bail out its failing transit agency. Ley and Larson discussed evidence of what Ley calls a “fraud” involving TriMet’s light rail vehicle purchases for the I-5 bridge replacement project. 

Ley contends that TriMet’s vehicles, purchased for $4-5 million each, are being unfairly billed to the project at $15 million per vehicle and that Washington is being “ripped off” despite light rail serving primarily Oregon. He argues this funding scheme could cost Washington state up to $500 million and he calls for accountability and new leadership. Here’s the highlights of what Ley says his research has uncovered:

• TriMet’s $4-5 million light rail vehicles are intended as replacements, not for the new bridge project.
• Despite that, the I-5 Bridge replacement project would be billed at $15 million per vehicle for 19 vehicles, not needed for the 1.8-mile MAX light rail extension. 
• Ley claims the plan defrauds not only local taxpayers but also the federal government, which would provide up to $1 billion of the $2 billion transit component.
• C-TRAN’s board has recently questioned the project’s funding, especially TriMet’s demand for an annual $7 million in maintenance and operations funding. Ley says C-TRAN could kill the light rail component and potentially the entire project if it withdraws support of the “modified Locally Preferred Alternative.”
• Ley believes federal law doesn’t require a transit component for bridge funding and that a vehicle-focused bridge would still be eligible for federal money. Existing C-TRAN buses serve current and likely future demand for transit.

Ley tried to introduce a bill in the Washington legislature during the recently completed session to block Washington from paying for light rail capital costs, but it was rejected. He concludes that Washington is being “ripped off” to benefit an Oregon transit agency. 

“Number one, the vehicles TriMet is already contracted for are in the range of $4-5 million apiece,’’ Ley told Larson. “And number two, all the vehicles they’ve ordered are replacement vehicles for worn out light rail vehicles. So in reality, they don’t need any of these for the Interstate Bridge project; and the price tag is in the 4 to $5 million range. It’s an outrage. And the thing that ticks me off the most is that Greg Johnson and the Interstate Bridge Replacement (program) team turn a blind eye to this, and therefore they are complicit in all of this scam or fraud.

“If nobody checks up, if nobody demands receipts or contracts or anything, in a sense it becomes as much as you can steal, as much as you can get away with,’’ Ley said. “And that’s sadly what’s happening. And it’s not only ripping off Clark County, it’s ripping off the federal government, and it’s ripping off all of Washington state taxpayers.” 

Because the Interstate Bridge project is hoping to get $1 billion of the $2 billion transit component from the federal government, that leaves another billion, $500 million from Oregon and $500 million from Washington. “That means that Washington state would be being ripped off for up to $500 million of this price tag, on this whole boondoggle,” Ley said. “It’s just literally ridiculous.’’

Ley has long been critical of the performance of Johnson, the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program administrator. Ley believes Johnson appears to prioritize Oregon’s interests and TriMet over Southwest Washington. I certainly don’t disagree with Ley about the appearance of Johnson’s actions, but I don’t believe at the time that he took the reins for this project he had a dog in the fight. He came from the Michigan Department of Transportation. His mandate was to get this bridge built. 

What I believe has transpired since is that in brokering the agreement between the two states, Johnson quickly realized he wasn’t going to bring Oregon to the table without the light rail element. And, because TriMet is an agency facing financial calamity, he knows the I-5 Bridge replacement has to help make it solvent enough to complete the project.  When TriMet demanded and Vancouver didn’t object that C-TRAN pay for a portion of the maintenance and operation costs for the light rail extension, Johnson didn’t try to stop it. That’s in spite of the fact that the majority of Clark County residents don’t want light rail, nor more taxes to pay for it. The total annual maintenance and operations expense is estimated to be $21 million according to TriMet.

In March, the C-TRAN Board of Directors appeared ready to approve a resolution proposed by Clark County Councilor Michelle Belkot, refusing to pay for maintenance and operations of the light rail extension into Vancouver. They also questioned the need for light rail to be part of the project. However, Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle successfully engineered a successful vote to table the motion.

The next day, Belkot’s fellow Clark County councilors voted to remove her from the C-TRAN Board and replaced her with Wil Fuentes. In May, after two lawsuits were filed in the dispute, the C-TRAN Board voted to pause the vote for three months.

“Sadly, Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle of Vancouver and members of the (Washington) legislature over here and other government organizations are not throwing the B.S. flag,’’ Ley told Larson. “Delightfully, last December, our C-TRAN Board of Directors started asking significant questions about it. And as you know, there are games being played to keep the C-TRAN Board from saying no, we are not going to contribute a penny to this.

“The other aspect of this is that C-TRAN could actually kill the whole light rail component of this if they wanted to,’’ Ley said. “They’re one of eight different organizations that have approval or disapproval on the locally preferred alternative. And if they were to reverse their original position three years ago and say, no, we no longer approve of this, it potentially kills the entire project.”

This poker game isn’t over. This is still a proposed project. The federal funds allocated to the project haven’t been paid. Washington’s legislature has come up with the $1 billion it has promised to contribute but Oregon’s legislature has only allocated a portion of its contribution and a promise to pay the rest. Hopefully, more Washington lawmakers and elected officials will join Rep. Ley in questioning the proposed partnership between the two states.

“It’s just, sadly, how the politics are overriding common sense,’’ Ley told Larson.