The Issaquah City Council won’t take an official position on I-90 tolling. But council members and the mayor have five points they want the Washington State Department of Transportation to consider:

• The state should use a portion of the revenue from tolling on I-90 for improvement of the I-90 corridor;

• A portion of the toll revenue should go to mass transit;

• There should be equity for all users of the I-90 corridor with no exempted population receiving public benefit at no cost;

• The city opposes the tolling of off-ramps and on-ramps in Issaquah, noting that would be inequitable unless every on or off-ramp from an interstate was tolled across the state, and

• The city is requesting that when the WSDOT holds public meetings in the future, they also be held in Issaquah.

The recommendations came as a smaller than expected crowd showed up at a public hearing to discuss tolling I-90.

Issaquah resident Michael Beard, who was one of the applicants for the council seat vacated by Mark Mullet, did not think the letter was representative of the public perception.

“I’m asking you to represent us,” he said. “It’s a serious amount of money.”

Kristi Tripple, representing Rowley properties, asked the council to support only tolling on the bridge, not the on and off ramps into Issaquah.

Issaquah resident and business owner Connie Marsh added, “You add tolls and you increase barriers we’ve long tried to eradicate.”

Marsh said many of her customers come from Seattle, and are finally over the notion of Issaquah being a “barren wasteland.” People on both sides of Lake Washington won’t want to venture across if it’s going to cost them more money.

Council member Tola Marts said he thought it was too soon to be tolling.

“This is very weird, because we’re not getting a new and better bridge,” he said.

Marts said putting more taxation on taxpayers is a bad move, but he still supported the letter to DOT.

Council member Josh Schaer, chairman of the Council Transportation Committee, said that with Washington’s gas tax among the highest in the country at 37.5 cents per gallon – and possibly going up by 10 cents – driving around the lake to avoid the tolls would cost as much, and take a heck of a lot longer.

Since it is necessary to complete the 520 bridge, Schaer suggested perhaps tolling only at peak times, or maybe even directing some of the lottery funds to transportation.

“Everything should be on the table,” Schaer said.