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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gas Tax Hike Proposed By Rice, Locke Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Broach Topic During Debate

Lynda V. Mapes Staff writer

Both leading Democratic candidates for governor said Thursday they believe the state tax on gasoline should be increased.

Seattle Mayor Norm Rice and King County Executive Gary Locke made the statement at a candidate’s forum hosted by the City Club at a downtown hotel.

Neither Rice nor Locke specified how much the tax should be raised, but both said the state’s infrastructure has to be maintained and improved to keep both people and goods moving.

Rice also said he believed the tax should be used not only for roads, but also to build transit and support other transportation alternatives.

Washington’s gas tax is 23 cents per gallon, 17th highest in the country. A federal tax of 18 cents a gallon pushes the total tax at the pump to 41 cents.

The 1990 Legislature was the last to increase the tax, with a nickel-a-gallon hike phased in over two years.

By state constitution, gas tax revenue can only be used for highway improvements. That means a constitutional amendment would be needed to use money from the gas tax to build rail or other transportation alternatives.

Constitutional amendments have to be approved by two-thirds of each House of the Legislature and a vote of the people.

The last politician to speak out in favor of raising the gas tax was Democratic Gov. Mike Lowry. In 1993, Lowry proposed a 10-cent-per-gallon increase phased in over two years. The governor also wanted to extend the state sales tax to gasoline, charged at the rate of 8.2 percent.

Taken together, those tax increases would have hiked the gas tax about 25 cents a gallon by 1995.

Lowry did little to prepare the political groundwork for the proposal, which he mentioned at a time when other taxes were also being increased to close a state budget deficit.

His gas tax proposal went down in flames and no one has seriously pushed raising taxes at the pump since.

All GOP candidates for governor are campaigning on a platform of cutting and even eliminating taxes. None has proposed an increase, and many have vowed they would raise no taxes for any reason.

Transportation officials say there is a backlog of road repairs and improvements because money is short. The state Transportation Commission is discussing whether to ask the Legislature for a gas tax increase in the coming session.

Other than the gas tax, little else of substance was given much debate in the forum.

“It was a nothing burger,” complained Ron Dotzauer of Northwest Strategies, a Seattle public affairs consulting firm.

So far the gubernatorial candidates have been more than civil. They’ve barely engaged each other, leaving it to their TV commercials and the media to highlight differences between them.

Candidates at the Democratic forum apologized before asking what they felt were tough questions. And GOP candidates are following what they call the 11th commandment, to never speak ill of another Republican.

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