Sponsored by 26th Legislative District Rep. Derek Kilmer, House Bill 2670 creates a Local Infrastructure Financing Tool (LIFT) that would allow the city of Gig Harbor to bond against part of new sales tax revenue in order to finance needed infrastructure improvements.

The state granted a Certificate of Need to Franciscan Health System in 2004 to build a hospital in Gig Harbor North, but the project ran into a roadblock last year after a traffic impact study showed that even without the hospital, the Gig Harbor North area will become too congested, and improvements had to be made before the city could approve a change in the comprehensive plan required for the hospital site. The traffic study, however, doesn’t impact the developments already in progress, namely a new Costco and a YMCA being built nearby.

“It (the bill) gives us another financial tool to work toward building infrastructure improvements,” said Gig Harbor City Administrator Mark Hoppen, one of the city officials who testified in favor of the bill. He said the growth in the area and the need for more roads was anticipated in the comprehensive plan but farther in the future.

“It’s grown faster and more vigorously than anybody could have reasonably anticipated,” he said of the Gig Harbor North area, where Target, Home Depot and Albertson’s were the first chain stores to locate in 2001.

Hoppen said LIFT doesn’t provide an instant fix but it would allow the city to make long-term and short-term improvements, both of which are necessary in order for the Franciscan plans to move forward. Franciscan also plans to build a medical complex at the site, in addition to St. Anthony’s hospital.

“Once the city identifies solutions to its traffic problems and how to pay for them, it enables the city to get the project back on track,” said Gale Robinette, Franciscan spokesman.

Kilmer said the fact that the bill passed overwhelmingly — 92 to 1 — shows the huge bipartisan support for the idea of using LIFT in order to bring a hospital to the community. “We need a hospital,” said Kilmer, who is a Gig Harbor resident and is also part of a task force created by former Mayor Gretchen Wilbert to look into solutions to the hospital project. “Having that hospital will save lives, and also bring 450 new jobs into our area, and I think the members of the House found that compelling.”

He said all the other states in the country have a similar tool, and he has looked for a way to solve the problem without increasing the tax burden. He said he was hopeful the Senate, too, will find those arguments compelling.

“This is about getting health care to people who need it, and about getting local jobs,” he said.