A new Elway Poll underscores the challenge facing legislators and the broad coalition working to fund essential transportation improvements in the state. The Seattle Times reports:

A Stuart Elway poll of 412 registered voters found that 72 percent oppose a higher gas tax and 62 percent oppose an increase in the car tab. The poll has a margin of error of 5 percentage points, plus or minus.

Those two taxes would provide most of the revenue in a nearly $10 billion transportation plan proposed by House Democrats last month…

Emily wrote about the House plan in February.

The Connecting Washington task force report, released January 2012, called for a considerably bigger investment.

The Task Force recommends an investment of $21 billion in state funding during the next ten years to preserve the transportation system and make strategic investments in the corridors that hold the key to job creation and economic growth.

The Task Force estimates the amount needed to fully address the objectives is approximately $50 billion.

But tough times means $50 billion is unattainable now, the group said.

House Transportation Committee chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, last week told the Association of Washington Business that she understood transportation backers wanted a larger proposal.

Business, labor, and environmental groups all wanted more, Clibborn said Thursday at AWB’s weekly Lobby Lunch meeting. But they all wanted more of different things.

After the proposal was unveiled, and the public found out that it included a 10-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike, the discussion changed.

“One of the reasons I wanted to roll it out is have the public say ’10 cents! Oh my God!'” Clibborn said. “So now we’re tempering our conversation around ‘What can you really do?”

After seeing the poll, Clibborn tells the Times she’ll press on.

“It tells us that it’s a heavy lift, and I never thought it would be anything but a heavy lift,” she said. Also, “it tells me that you have a lot of educating to do around what a revenue package would get you.”

She expanded on the theme for the Seattle Weekly.

Business groups remain committed to a transportation solution, noting that the House propossal represented a good start. Concerns about priorities and revenues remain problematic, but momentum is important in 2013.

AWB president Don Brunell in a statement released when the plan was unveiled said,

Today’s proposal represents a starting point in this conversation about transportation investments.

Washington Roundtable president Steve Mullin appeared at the press conference with Clibborn.

“Improving our transportation system is critical to Washington’s economy. We hope that today’s proposal by Rep. Clibborn will be the start of a robust conversation in Olympia about how to address an estimated $50 billion in transportation needs. We can’t afford to wait any longer,” said Steve Mullin, President of the Washington Roundtable.

To understand better the urgency of transportation improvements, see AWB’s 2013 report, Transportation Infrastructure in the State of Washington and the Washington Roundtable’s 2013 Transportation Investment Recommendations.