(1)(a) The department shall establish a regional mobility grant program. The purpose of the grant program is to aid local governments in funding projects such as intercounty connectivity service, park and ride lots, rush hour transit service, and capital projects that improve the connectivity and efficiency of our transportation system. The department shall identify cost-effective projects that reduce delay for people and goods and improve connectivity between counties and regional population centers. The department shall submit a prioritized list of all projects requesting funding to the legislature by December 1st of each year.
(b) Once the department has a prioritized list, pursuant to (a) of this subsection and RCW
47.66.040, of all projects requesting funding, the department shall reprioritize the projects in counties with a population of seven hundred thousand or more that border Puget Sound based on the same criteria used for the prioritized list as well as the additional criteria of coordination and integration. After this reprioritization, the department shall integrate these reprioritized projects with the prioritized projects from all other counties while ensuring that the prioritized projects from all other counties do not move to a lower relative position on this integrated list or, if a prioritized project from all other counties is in the funded portion of the prioritized list, out of the funded portion of this integrated list.
(2) The department may establish an advisory committee to carry out the mandates of this chapter.
(3) The department must report annually to the transportation committees of the legislature on the status of any grants projects funded by the program created under this section.