Spokane7
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March 22, 2011 in City
House panel won’t put gas tax hike on ballot this year
OLYMPIA – Washington voters will not be asked to raise gas taxes or any other tax related to roads this fall. 2012, however, could be different.
As they announced the House proposal for an $8.9 billion transportation budget, the chairwoman and top Republican on the House Transportation Committee agreed Monday that there’d be no ballot measure sent to voters asking for a tax increase to pay for more road projects this year.
Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, said there would be one “sometime in the future,” and that could be as soon as 2012. Some of the state’s transportation accounts will dip into the red by then.
The state will need more money eventually for some new projects, including future phases of Spokane’s north-south freeway, said state Rep. Mike Armstrong, of Wenatchee, the panel’s ranking Republican. But he’s not willing to support an increase in the gas tax yet.
“New revenue is going to be needed. I’m not sure a gas tax is going to be part of it,” Armstrong said.
The proposed House Transportation budget sets aside some $72 million over the next two years for the Spokane roadway – also known as the North Spokane Corridor – about $27 million of it from a special account fed by the extra 5-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline that voters approved in 2003. Most nickel-gas-tax projects will wrap up in the next two years, but the tax won’t go away; it will be used to pay off the bonds sold to construct those projects.
The House transportation budget also proposes spending $12 million to replace the 63-year-old Keller Ferry across the Columbia River between Ferry and Lincoln counties; for road projects on Havana Street, Bigelow Gulch Road and for the Geiger Spur rail project; and for six bicycle and pedestrian safety projects around Spokane. The release of the budget is just the beginning of hearings in the House, and the Senate Transportation Committee is scheduled to release its spending plan this afternoon.
In announcing their spending plan, committee members said the $8.9 billion budget would create some 43,000 jobs while being fiscally responsible. Gasoline taxes are less reliable as a source of money for road projects than in the past because of higher gas mileage in new cars and decreased driving by motorists, they said.
“There’s really no silver bullet that would save us from decreasing gas tax revenues,” said Clibborn, who added she wasn’t looking at any new revenue source other than a gas tax. Armstrong said Republicans were “looking at a bunch of options,” which he declined to detail.
Rep. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, the committee’s vice chairman, argued that raising the gas tax on a per-gallon basis really should not be seen as an increase on motorists because they’d be paying about the same amount in taxes with their fuel-efficient cars. “It’s really keeping steady as gas use declines.”
Supermajority for taxes unconstitutional, judge rules 
mikeln on March 22 at 4:47 a.m.
We could tax the oil companies for road contruction, repair,ect. After all, it’s the roads that make them the money, but wait, they would just pass that tax onto us anyway so why bother.
DickAdams on March 22 at 6:04 a.m.
These idiots don`t get it. Washington state has a gas tax higher than the rest of the nation now, and yet these morons want another increase. Not surprising knowing how Gregoire loves to spend our money. When does it stop? Both Gregoire and Lisa Brown need the boot. That`s when it will stop.
Orphan on March 22 at 6:47 a.m.
We need an outside independant auditor to review where and how they are spending our money.
Marco Liias needs the boot as well, where do we find these people?????
A higher gas tax aint gonna happen.
mikeln on March 22 at 7:08 a.m.
I agree with orphan, I think we would be suprised where the money really goes. That will never happen, even before this caculated economic crises, the state cut 78% of the funding to the office that looks into fraud and waste in washington government. You can bet your butt this was done at the request of the good old boys club, those non-elected people that tell their lackys’ what to do, be they democrat or republican.
philipgregory on March 22 at 7:12 a.m.
Fine.
When they do, voters TRY to remember who voted for it.
jddavis on March 22 at 7:27 a.m.
It wouldn’t matter what the voters say. The gas tax initiative was voted down last time, Gov Gregoire and the Legislature instituted annual increases against the will of the voters.
Orphan on March 22 at 7:27 a.m.
Good point phillipgregory, we the people did this to ourselves. Is it time to get mad and fix this yet????
lewis8457 on March 22 at 8:31 a.m.
remember years ago when we all paid a fare to cross the ash and maple bridge. then they went to find the money and it was gone. no one knew where it went. same thing here, until they can get their own house in order they can not expect us to keep paying through the nose.
Do they really think the voters will approve a gas tax in 2012 when they are paying 5 bucks at the pump. I am paying $3.74 for mid grade so i can destroy my truck on the badly maintained roads.
west on March 22 at 8:52 a.m.
Where most of money goes:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014564505_transpobudget22m.html
DickAdams on March 22 at 9:37 a.m.
What a bunch of pathetic legislators.
mikeln on March 22 at 12:12 p.m.
I bet we could get more bang for our buck if we told the good old boys club it was time to tighten their belts like the rest of us. This would require electing people with a backbone that would tell them, Do it cheaper, Do it better so it will last or you will no longer get our buisness and when you go belly up, we will sell your equipment to somone who will.
greenlibertarian on March 22 at 12:13 p.m.
Washington state has a gas tax higher than the rest of the nation now
As usual, Dick just makes up numbers as he goes along.
SIX other states, all of them with an state income tax as well, have higher state gas taxes than WA.
Decrease the ignorance and/or quit spouting lies.
People can differ on whether the gas tax should be raised, kept the same, or lowered, but a least know what the basic facts are before ranting ignorance and outright falsities.
hawken on March 22 at 4:10 p.m.
Excellent! No new taxes. Cut the spending.
DemoDriver on March 22 at 4:26 p.m.
They’re liberals, they must tax or they will explode! LOL
But what about Orphan’s “audit, audit, audit!” idea? That has some validity.
Returning more control back to couny levels would also be desireable.
greenlibertarian on March 22 at 5:33 p.m.
Return more control to the county level? What if the county’s incompetent, like Spokane? The State’s about to take over the massive Bigelow Gulch project after the County bungled it, badly.
nslopeofw on March 22 at 5:45 p.m.
Here is a state by state tax chart. Looks like WA is #4 highest. 1. Wisconsin @ 32.1 cpg, Rhode Island @ 30 cpg, Pennsylvania @ 31 cpg, New York @ 31.9 cpg. These are for gas, there are also #’s for diesel on the link.
The feds charge 18.4 cpg on top of whatever the states charge. That equals 46.4 cents per gallon we are taxed in Washington.
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp
greenlibertarian on March 22 at 8:23 p.m.
Way out of date, nslope.
I got my figures here: (American Petroleum Institute, Jan. 2011)
http://www.api.org/statistics/fueltaxes/
DickAdams on March 22 at 8:57 p.m.
Greenie; I`ll check out my post. And you nincompoop, you used somebody else`s post the other day, and accused me of the opine. I posted several comments about your being mistaken and you failed to respond. Figures. Hide behind your moniker oh gutless one and post erroneous info and lie about what I`ve posted. I`ll take the blame if in fact I`m in error. Obviously you do nothing about your lies.
DickAdams on March 22 at 9:11 p.m.
When the state of Washington first passed the gas tax, raising it to 28 cents per gallon, we were number 1. Subsequently, we now, as of today, sit at the 5th highest state gas tax of the 50 states. Four states have passed us up. Pennsylvania however, requires all automobiles to pass a safety test and is the reason they are so high because the state gas tax is now used to test cars. Not a bad idea. It gets the junk cars off the street. I apologize for not checking out the stats before my posting. I try to do better.
DickAdams on March 22 at 9:15 p.m.
Greenie shows a url that is outdated. If anybody cares to check it out the effective date is 1/2011. Since January, it is erroneous.
DickAdams on March 22 at 9:19 p.m.
greenie, says way out of date nslope. “Way out of date”? LOL The ink wasn`t dry and the January stuff was wrong.
nslopeofw on March 23 at 12:39 a.m.
Here is an interesting chart that The New York Times article http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/on-twitter-conservative-by-association/ has reported.
A Duke University study of researchers rank politicians and other public figures by political ideology as measured by a formula that incorporates whom they follow on Twitter, and who follows them. http://newsbusters.org/sites/default/files/file_attach/twitter-study.pdf
Interesting that MSNBC is more left than Jane Fonda, and barely less than the daily KOS.
Even more interesting is the up and coming challenger politicians are mostly right, and center, with VERY few lefties. I think that reflects the mood of the country. Kind of puts a bit of sand in the shorts of the liberal posters on this site. If the majority of people shooting for office are right or center, then where are all these left leaning people? My guess is they are few, but have very loud voices. They cloud the issues with cries of racism, and hateful insults.