Nothing is certain until the concrete is poured. This is especially true when we're talking about budget allocations and appropriations, such as the $50 million for Aurora that was set aside in the 2022 Move Ahead WA transportation bill. At the close of this year's legislative session, legislators delayed spending on a number of items from the transportation bill, including the $50 million appropriation, intended by Senator Carlyle to be a demonstration project in the Licton Springs segment of Aurora. As currently scheduled by the legislature, the expenditure could happen any biennium* into the future after June 30, 2029. It could be in 2029, it could be in 2129.
The Legislative Process
Budgets are fluid and always subject to changing circumstances. The City needs to remain alert, flexible, and adapt as needed while achieving the goal of a better and safer Aurora Corridor.
Nothing is ever guaranteed until the expenditure is actually appropriated and, even then, it can be changed until the work is actually done. An example at the city level: the planned signal at 130th & Ashworth was appropriated in 2019 for construction in 2020. But, when Covid hit, it was one of many expenditures placed on hold in 2020. But having been appropriated, it tended to be kept towards the top of the line for possible future expenditures, and now it seems to be on-track to be designed this year and installed in 2024 (unless circumstances throw it off-track again.)
For a number of years the legislature had been unable to agree on a long-range transportation package - expenditures were just being made year to year on a short-term basis without an over-all framework or direction. In 2022 the stars aligned and the legislature was finally able to agree on a long-range framework, including the $50 million appropriation for Aurora. But the framework remained subject to expenditures being authorized in each biennial budget and, as always, subject to change.
Nevertheless, the $50 million remains part of the framework. The state legislature didn't appropriate the $50 million for Aurora in this year's biennial budget; it was never even discussed on the floor of the legislature, it just disappeared while staff did its sausage-making sorting of priorities.
What We Know
It is up to Seattle and their office of intergovernmental relations (headed by Gael Tarleton), the Mayor's Office, and the Department of Transportation to make sure the needed appropriations are kept alive during each legislative session.
We can expect a complete transportation vision for all of Aurora by the end of 2024. The Aurora Reimagined Coalition will be pushing SDOT and the Mayor's Office to make this vision as bold and transformative as possible. Once a formal vision for the corridor is on the books, it will be much easier to apply for funding from state and federal sources to realize that vision.
We know that SDOT is already looking at other sources of funding for improvements to Aurora - the $50 million is insufficient for any more than a small segment of the corridor. With this delay in appropriating the $50 million funding for the Licton Springs demonstration project, securing other sources of funding has become more important for the short-term progress of improvements along Aurora.
What We Are Going To Do
As a coalition of businesses, neighbors, and community advocates dedicated to the transformation of Aurora, we recognize this will be a decades-long effort. For context, improving the three-mile stretch of Aurora in Shoreline required $146 million, took 20 years, and used a mix of 21 funding sources. Seattle’s portion of Aurora Ave N, in comparison, is nearly 8 miles long, has much more diverse housing, business, and freight needs, and crosses a major body of water.
We will continue to pressure SDOT and other city agencies to not only create a holistic and transformative vision for Aurora, but to also source and apply for the necessary funding for improvements along the corridor. We will encourage our elected officials at the state and federal levels to support funding for projects along Aurora.
There's a tremendous and exciting amount of work that needs to be done this year by the City, SDOT, and others, regardless of whether the $50 million had been appropriated. If we stay the course, by the next legislative interim budget session in 2024, and the following biennial session in 2025, there's great opportunity to present a proposal that gets funded.
*Washington State's budgets are biennial, created every second year in the odd years (2023 and 2025 are biennium budget years). Seattle's budget is also biennial. The framework for expenditures get established in these biennial budgets, but it's only a framework. In the the opposite year a supplementary budget is created, which modifies the biennial budget, adding, subtracting, and changing line items. The Move Ahead WA transportation bill last year (which had the $50 million for Aurora in it) was unusual; it was out of the usual odd-year rhythm.