Sen. Jim Horn (R-Mercer Island), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee in the upcoming session of the Washington state Legislature, told a meeting of county council members from King, Snohomish and Pierce counties not to expect more funding help from the state for large road work projects, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Dec. 13.

King County includes much of the Seattle metropolitan area; Snohomish County lies to the north, while Pierce County sits south of the city. Mercer Island, Horn's home base, sits in Lake Washington just east of Seattle.

The officials from the three counties are developing a transportation improvement package that would run $11 billion. They plan to put the measure before voters next fall. The money was planned as a supplement to Referendum 51, a fuel-tax measure turned down by voters.

Horn not only told the county officials not to expect more money from the state, he indicated there was little support for alternatives offered by local officials, such as tolls and a local fuel tax. Projects in the region that need funding include work on I-405, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the Evergreen Point Bridge, the Mercer Street corridor and state Routes 167, 509 and 18.