Senate Passes $15 Billion Transportation Package

As reported by the Associated Press, The Senate yesterday approved a $15 billion transportation revenue package that includes an incremental gas tax increase of 11.7 cents over the next three years.

The chamber passed the revenue bill on a 27-22 bipartisan vote and negotiations with the House will begin.

They also passed a spending bill that designates the money to specific projects.

“Even though there are issues with it that we might all have, this is a process,” said Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens. “In the end, I think we will have something that is very good for the state of Washington.”

Under the 16-year plan, the gas tax would increase in three stages: a 5-cent increase would take effect this summer, a 4.2-cent increase would follow next year, and then a final 2.5-cent increase would take effect the following year.

Sen. Brian Dansel, a Republican from Republic, said that nearly 12 cents a gallon may not seem like a lot, but “it adds up quite a bit for folks who have to drive greater distances to fill their rigs up more often.”

House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan Statement on Senate Passage of a Transportation Package
“Transportation funding is important, and I’m encouraged the Senate has sent the House a transportation package and revenue proposal. There are positive pieces in the package, but unfortunately, the bad greatly outweighs the good.

“Had Senate Republicans agreed to a “clean” package focusing on transportation and investment in our state’s infrastructure, we would be in a much better position to come to agreement. We now have a lot of work to do make this a true transportation package, not a Senate Republican policy agenda.

“One of the biggest problems is the Senate Republicans’ vote to move nearly $1 billion in transportation project sales tax dollars from the operating budget to the transportation budget. It moves us in the wrong direction and away from meeting our requirement of amply funding our schools.

“Funding concrete first when the state is under a Supreme Court contempt order to properly fund our K-12 schools shows how skewed Senate Republicans’ priorities are. We have at least a $2 billion budget deficit now; taking away another billion only exacerbates the problem in the years ahead. How do Senate Republicans explain voting now for billions in taxes for projects, but not a dime for the future of our children?

“We in the House will do our best to fix the transportation package sent over by Senate Republicans, but before that we will need to see substantial movement on their part to address our paramount duty of educating our children and fairly balancing our operating budget.”

Rep. Pat Sullivan

The Senate proposal includes more than $8 billion for road projects that include the North-South Freeway in Spokane and I-90 on Snoqualmie Pass, and puts money toward transit and local rail projects, as well as bike paths and pedestrian walkways. It also would allow Sound Transit to ask voters to fund potential expansions of its rail line.

The plan does not incorporate elements of Gov. Jay Inslee’s climate-based proposal, which would have charged polluters under a cap-and-trade program to pay for transportation projects.

Part of the plan also addresses another idea Inslee is considering, a low carbon fuel standard that would require cleaner fuels over time. If that standard is ultimately adopted, under the Senate plan, all non-bondable revenues - such as fee-based money going toward transit and bike paths - would instead be moved into the main transportation account, a tie that several Democrats decried, even some who ultimately voted for the bill.

“I really would strongly prefer to be able to vote on the revenue and the projects and not have that other policy debate brought into this bill,” said Sen. Jamie Pedersen, a Democrat from Seattle who voted in favor of the package.

Last Friday, the Senate passed nine bills tied to the package, ranging from environmental permitting to adding “congestion relief and improved freight mobility” to existing state goals.

One of the biggest bills of contention that passed last week was one that would exempt all state highway projects from the state sales tax and would redirect sales tax money from non-highway transportation projects away from the state general fund.

Related: How Congress Is ‘Killing Our Transportation System’

Related (video): Jon Stewart Tackles the Highway Funding Fight