House fails to round up enough votes for gas tax bill

OLYMPIA – In a bizarre political meltdown, the state House of Representatives on Saturday rejected a 9.5 cent gas tax increase intended to help fix some of Washington’s biggest and most urgent transportation woes.

The 53-to-45 defeat stunned many lawmakers. Although any tax increase can be politically touchy, leaders in both parties said afterward that they had expected the bill to pass.

Democrats said they will try to bring the bill back up for a vote today, the final day of this year’s legislative session.

“It’s not dead,” insisted House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. The Senate has already approved a similar measure.

As soon as Saturday’s vote was tallied, both parties promptly blamed each other for the bill’s failure.

Democrats have enough votes in the House – 55 of the 98 seats – to single-handedly OK the bill if they want to. But House Speaker Frank Chopp is leery of the $8.5 billion tax increase being laid entirely at the feet of Democrats. After all, the bill’s proponents said repeatedly in recent weeks, roads aren’t Democrat or Republican.

In the end, nearly a third of House Democrats voted no.

But the eight Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for the bill felt betrayed that Chopp didn’t get more Democrats to back it, House Minority Leader Bruce Chandler said.

Several of those Republicans who supported the measure now say they’ll vote against it if it comes back up for a vote, Chandler said.

“He (Chopp) played a game, and he lost,” said Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-Otis Orchards, who is a firm “no.”

But Democrats said they had been hoping for twice the number of Republican votes that the bill got. Kessler called it “a breach of faith.”

“Newt Gingrich’s tentacles are still out there,” she said, adding that preserving the state’s transportation system shouldn’t be a partisan tug-of-war.

The bill would raise $8.5 billion over 16 years through several new or increased taxes and fees. Among them:

“The state gas tax would rise 3 cents this July, then 3 cents, 2 cents and 1.5 cents over the next three years.

“Cars and light trucks would be charged a new weight fee, varying from $10 to $30 per year.

“Motor home owners would pay a $75 annual fee.

“Driver’s license and plate fees would rise.

The billions of dollars raised by the new taxes and fees would pay for hundreds of transportation projects around the state, including:

“$2 billion toward replacement of Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct, thought to be in danger of crumbling in the region’s next big earthquake. (The remaining estimated $2 billion the project will cost would be acquired through tolls, the city of Seattle, local taxes and federal money.)

“$972 million for work on Interstate 405 near Seattle.

“$500 million toward replacement of the SR 520 floating bridge near Seattle.

“$602 million for road projects done by local cities and counties.

“$740 million for commuter rail projects.

“$341 million in bridge repairs and replacements.

“$435 million for work to keep Snoqualmie Pass open despite winter storms.

Locally, the list includes money to replace a Spokane-area bridge on SR 290, $1.5 million toward the Geiger rail spur near Fairchild Air Force Base, and $152 million for the North Spokane Corridor, a $2 billion project decades in the making. It also includes millions of dollars for “Bridging the Valley,” a local effort to separate rail lines from congested roads in the Spokane Valley.

But many local lawmakers are unhappy with that list. Even the two local House members who voted Saturday for the gas tax increase – Reps. Timm Ormsby and Alex Wood, both D-Spokane – say they did so reluctantly.

“It’s a hell of a tough vote for me,” said Ormsby. “I can’t in good conscience know that the Viaduct is going to fall down and do nothing. But I’m not happy with the budget.”

Most local lawmakers voted against it.

“The gas tax is just not a good tax to be raising now,” said Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane. “And the more rural you get, the more it’s going to hurt.”

The biggest sore spot, local lawmakers say, is the relatively low amount of money set aside for the North Spokane Corridor.

“There just isn’t an upside for Spokane,” said Sen. Brad Benson, R-Spokane. “If (the bill) passes, we’re screwed.”

“I can’t go to the Dusty Cafe and sell this. I’m not that good a politician,” Rep. David Buri, R-Colfax, said of the project list. “I would never get pie there again.”

Freshman Rep. John Serben, R-Spokane, told Democrats that he’d consider voting for the bill if they’d boost the North Spokane Corridor money to $350 million. They wouldn’t go higher than $250 million, he said.

“I think there’s a good chance (voting for the gas tax) would have hurt me politically,” Serben said. “But my whole life I’ve been hearing how we need this north-south freeway.”