This is an important safety project, and I'm glad Olympia is able to proceed with it.
As traffic volumes flowing into Olympia from Lacey and the County increase, local residents, including people who walk and bicycle face increasing hazards. While Olympia can collect impact fees from new construction within the City to mitigate these problems, it cannot collect a contribution from people outside the City when they create these problems. Fortunately, the state is able to fund some of these safety projects.
Yes, Olympia should fix the roads. Historically that was done with a combination of general fund taxes and the motor vehicle excise tax. The motor vehicle excise tax was repealed (replaced with a Transportation Benefit District fee on car registrations. The general fund money previously devoted to road repair has been diverted to hire more public relations staff in the City Manager's office, fund a new Economic Development program, and support housing and homeless response.
Personally, I think Olympia should follow it's own adopted Financial Strategy, which calls for maintaining existing assets before starting new programs. The current Council has deviated from that policy. That's poor leadership on the part of former Mayor Selby, and current Mayor Payne.
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