Twenty-sixth District Rep. Jan Angel, complaining on Monday about the Washington State Transportation Commission’s plan to impose photo-tolling on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, said what she resented most was the idea that toll rates and policies could be established by an unelected agency with no direct accountability to the public.

Rarely has a concern been addressed so quickly in Olympia.

At virtually the same moment, state Attorney General Rob McKenna was ruling that, henceforth, increases in tolls and ferry fares must be approved by the Legislature, not the Transportation Commission.

McKenna’s judgment was based on the voters having approved in November Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1053. And given that the measure clearly states, “… fees can only be imposed or increased if approved with majority legislative approval,” it’s hard to imagine why it took a ruling from the AG to reaffirm what anyone who speaks plain English could have seen at a glance.

Anyone hoping the Legislature will live up to the intent of I-1053 that lawmakers will have to attach their names to all fee increases and answer to the voters for having done so may be in for a letdown, though.

The Legislature has gotten around similar limitations in the past simply by approving an upper limit for the fee increase while delegating responsibility for setting the actual rate to — you guessed it — the Transportation Commission.

In this case, the Legislature would pass a bill authorizing tolls “not to exceed” $10 or so, then ask the Commission to settle on the appropriate amount.

That way, the lawmakers themselves can honestly tell their constituents they didn’t approve the rate hike. It was that faceless, unaccountable state agency that did it.

Which brings us right back where we started.

Presumably Eyman is working as we speak on a new initiative to close that loophole. And just as surely, the lawmakers will find a convenient way to ignore whatever he comes up with.