Gop Gas Tax Plan Could Leave Spokane Streets In The Hole

Republican lawmakers are discussing a compromise gasoline tax plan that could leave the city of Spokane without new money for street repairs.

Party leaders are frowning upon a provision in Sen. Eugene Prince’s proposed 7-cent-per-gallon increase that would give cities and counties a 1-cent local option.

The plan would generate close to $3 million more per year for Spokane.

Two weeks ago, Senate majority leader Dan McDonald, R-Yarrow Point, said the plan is “on the perimeter of something I would support.”

But on Wednesday, he raised concern about the local option, which could be approved by local officials with a public vote.

“From our perspective, it’s terrible,” said Spokane Assistant City Planner Dave Mandyke, who has been lobbying in favor of Prince’s tax plan. “We’re literally digging ourselves into a deeper hole.”

McDonald said most counties, including Spokane, aren’t using the 2.3-cent-per-gallon local gas tax option already available. That increase must first be approved by local voters.

He also echoed the concerns of other Republicans that raising the gas tax from 23 cents per gallon would make them look inconsistent.

“It would be difficult to explain to people why we would be lowering taxes here and raising them there,” McDonald said. “I think there’s a lot of concern about this proposal.”

Some of that concern comes from Dale Foreman, the state’s GOP chairman. He has been lobbying party members to vote against the tax.

“We just have this block in my party that is adamant about it not happening,” said Prince, a Thornton Republican. “You get a party chair in here working the members, that’s pretty unusual. I can’t think it’s proper.”

Though Prince believes he has the votes to pass the proposal in the Senate, McDonald is worried it wouldn’t fly in the House.

Karen Schmidt, a Bainbridge Island Republican who chairs the House Transportation, Policy and Budget Committee, won’t include the local option in her plan, which hasn’t been released.

McDonald said he wants to find enough votes for a single proposal in both houses before putting any plan to a vote.

“We can’t be that afraid of our own shadow, can we?” Prince asked.

Getting a gas tax increase through the House will be a tougher chore than in the Senate, most agree. Some Eastern Washington lawmakers oppose the House proposal because they say it would spend too much money in the Puget Sound area.

Mark Sterk, a Spokane Valley Republican and a member of Schmidt’s committee, said the House would spend millions of dollars for 10 new ferries and for a light rail system from Centralia to Seattle.

The Senate budget doesn’t include those projects.

It does include money to widen Interstate 90 from Sprague Avenue to Argonne Road, to begin planning the proposed north-south freeway, and to widen U.S. Highway 395 north of Spokane.

Sterk also said Spokane wouldn’t get back all the increased tax revenue it would pay. The state Department of Transportation says Spokane County received 75 cents for every dollar it generated through transportation taxes between 1986 and 1995.

“Our region is losing dollars,” Sterk said. “Those dollars need to stay home.”

, DataTimes