Senate Puts The Brakes On Gas Tax Increase Plan Legislative Houses Blame Each Other For Killing Public Vote

A gas tax plan ran out of gas Wednesday, amid charges and countercharges of political gamesmanship.

The Senate declared the issue dead for the year - and probably for next year, too - and blamed the House for backing away from its original proposal for a public vote on a 4-cent-a-gallon boost in the state’s 23-cent gas tax.

But House leaders said they balked at taking a vote on the referendum proposal only because there was no assurance of a follow-up Senate vote, which could have left House Republicans high and dry.

The ironic bottom line: House and Senate transportation chairmen both said they support the tax referendum and think their respective houses would pass it, if only the other body would go first.

“You sort of get that sinking feeling” about Washington’s ability to cope with a looming transportation crisis, said state Transportation Secretary Sid Morrison. “Neither house wants to go first, and so we continue to lose the purchasing power of a penny per gallon per year” due to inflation and more fuelefficient cars.

Highway projects already in the pipeline will be completed, but “then it really dries up” and projects needed to combat traffic congestion won’t even get planning, engineering and right of way money, he said. That could mean a loss of federal matching funds, layoff of hundreds of skilled DOT workers and a long lag time when lawmakers finally do wake up, he said.

Morrison, himself a former Republican legislator and congressman, called it “long-term decisions made by short-term legislators.”

Senate Transportation Chairman Brad Owen, D-Shelton, gave the tax plan its unofficial burial Wednesday as he released the Senate Democrats’ transportation budget. It’s a $3.1 billion, two-year spending plan that reflects the decision not to pursue taxes.

His House counterpart, Rep. Karen Schmidt, R-Bainbridge Island, wasn’t quite as pessimistic as Owen. If leaders of the two houses can reach a truce, a revenue package can be added at the last minute by transportation budget negotiators, she said.

Voters would get the last say in November.

“I don’t know that it’s definitely dead,” Schmidt said in an interview. “It would be very difficult, but there is always a glimmer of hope.”

The House passed a $1.66 billion, one-year, no-new-tax budget Tuesday night, and GOP leaders indicated they were forgoing the tax vote due to the lack of Senate assurances.

But Owen said he doesn’t think the House really wanted to approve the referendum. And he doesn’t think GOP leaders had the necessary votes.

“They weren’t even close,” Owen said in an interview. “The issue of the Senate is a smokescreen. And I am not going to put it out there (for a Senate vote) if the House doesn’t have the votes.”

Schmidt disputed that, saying support had been growing in her conservative caucus. If the Senate had sent a clear signal of encouragement, the House very likely would have approved the $176 million tax referendum, she said.

Owen said he personally supports the tax increase and thinks the state will be in big trouble if the Legislature continues to defer action on a revenue bill.