Vote No on R51. The referendum outlines 2000 projects that it will start, but only finishes a few. They claim that this referendum will raise 10 billion dollars. I have heard numbers ranging between 25 and 50 billion to complete these projects. The truth is there is no plan (at least none that they are willing to talk about now) of where that extra money will come from, and no one really knows what the actual costs are. I strongly agree that we need to do something about our transportation system, but this is an ill thought out plan that will create as many problems as it solves.

Seacat made a good point about the WashDOT. I have a little story about WashDOT that I would like to add, which is contributing to my vote no mentality.
In 1994 a good friend of mine who works for one of the big 3 counties as a civil engineer(want to keep specific project and county private) submits a plan to rework one of the main roads that connects 2 growing towns through a rapidly growing residential area. Turns out this road is a State Route so the plan needs to go to WashDOT for approval. Washdot sends these plans through 17 sub departments and has 49 different engineers scrutinize them. The original idea was that at the end of this process the county engineers would meet with the Wash DOT engineers and discuss possible changes. At the end of round one the majority of the original 49 engineers had either retired, were promoted/transferred, or quit the state all together. So What does WashDOT do? Makes the county submit the plans again. The long and short of it is that the plans that were originally submitted in 1994 just got approved a few months ago and construction will begin soon. I would guess that they (WashDOT) could have cut this process down by about 75% and still given us a road that would be just as good /safe/environmentally friendly, and it would probably be done by now.

I personally believe that this state needs tax/government reform. I will not vote to give a bureaucracy as wasteful as the DOT any more of my money until they streamline process, cut costs and become something a little closer to efficient. I hope you say no too.