| After years of arguments, complaints, and legal battles, on November 9, 2000 the Supreme Court of Washington State made its long awaited ruling regarding the legality of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge project. The high Court said in its ruling, (1) “Because the agreement allows tolling of the existing bridge, it violates state law… ”(2) “The agreement also violates state law by allowing a private entity instead of the transportation commission to fix toll rates… ” (3) “The agreement violates the requirement that the existing bridge be operated and maintained with WSDOT highway funds.”
After working against this illegal project for over seven years this Supreme Court ruling was a great personal victory for me and a huge victory for the people of the northwest corner of Washington State who voted against this illegal toll bridge project back in 1998. But even bigger then the personal victory’s is the huge triumph sustained by our republic form of government. This ruling again dictates that no one is above the law, not even the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and their new private partners, United Infrastructure of Washington (UIW). We all must obey the law, all of us.
Now comes the headlines around Puget Sound “Bridge proponents look to Legislature” followed by stories, that in essence says, too bad about those pesky laws. We (WSDOT & UIW) intend to rally our friends in the Legislature to change those existing law and then everything will be back on track. We can’t believe that the “people” actually had the guts and the financial capability to challenge this illegal project all the way to the Supreme Court but, even with this adverse ruling, we consider this just a little “speed bump” and getting caught breaking the law won’t stop us from completing this project.
In our republic, we are all governed by law and we rely on the courts to interpret the law when there is a dispute between two parties. Win or lose in court, the laws don’t change; they stand constant and are hopefully applied equally to all parties. In the case of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, however, it appears WSDOT and UIW believe they are above the law and by attempting to pull together their friends in Olympia, (Sen. Bob Oke, Rep. Ruth Fisher, and Rep. Patricia Lantz), in an attempt to now, after the fact, re-write the law only proves their contempt for the people and the process they are sworn to serve.
Randy Boss
Gig Harbor. |
