Wheeler Kicks CRC Can Down the Road

State Treasurer Ted Wheeler today released a three-page letter (PDF) to legislative leaders assessing the viability of the revised $2.8 billion Columbia River Crossing project.

Wheeler's letter is a finalized version of a memo WW first reported a couple of weeks ago. As with the draft memo, the letter Wheeler released today makes it clear project sponsors will have to thread a rope large enough to tie up an oil tanker through the head of a needle in order to strike a deal that protects Oregon taxpayers.

Here, in typically understated language, is the key take-away: "It is premature to conclude the project can work, financially," Wheeler wrote today to House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) and Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem).

That's an important caveat, or it would be if the project's supporters were actually concerned about deadlines or fiscal responsibility as they relate to the CRC.

Back in February, Oregon lawmakers passed a funding bill, House Bill 2800, that appropriated $450 million for the project—provided if and only if Washington did the same. The Washington Legislature refused, so Gov. John Kitzhaber and Kotek unilaterally moved forward with an Oregon-only CRC.

That solution, which would reduce the amount of work done to Washington interchanges on I-5 and cut the project's price tag from $3.4 billion to $2.8 billion, with Oregon alone making a state-level contribution and Oregon alone bearing the risk that tolling revenues would be sufficient to pay off billions of dollars in debt service costs.

Over the summer, Kitzhaber shifted the terms, naming Sept. 30 as the deadline for the Oregon-only deal to be in place. The idea was that deadline was necessary to qualify for a $850 million federal grant to pay for light-rail to Vancouver and a for $900 million low-interest federal loan.

Earlier today, WW published a letter from U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler saying that there is no such federal deadline and that the federal money is more theoretical than real.

The other condition was that Wheeler, who as treasurer is responsible for safeguarding the state's finances, was supposed to have attested to the financial soundness of the Oregon-only proposal.

He now says he cannot do that by the Sept. 30 deadline.

So, it is once again kick the CRC can down the road time.

Here's how Wheeler's hedging the state's bets in today's letter:

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