Speaker Says Gas-Tax Hike Won’t Happen

The Legislature will not approve the gas tax increase proposed by Gov. Gary Locke, House Speaker Clyde Ballard reiterated Monday. It won’t even put it to a vote.

It might spend some of the state’s surplus on road repairs, and may channel some money from the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax out of the general fund and into transportation, the East Wenatchee Republican said at a Spokane news conference.

“We will not be raising taxes for (roads) or anything else,” Ballard said as he looked forward to a session that begins next Monday. “There will not be a vote in the House of Representatives on a gas tax increase.”

The House will study the possible merger of Eastern Washington University with Washington State University, he said. He said he would vote to combine the two institutions “if we get the information that would support it.”

The 1998 session will be tough on drunken drivers and ineffective schools if Ballard has his way.

Lowering the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving from .1 percent to .08 percent has general support in both parties and from the governor, but Ballard would go further. He said he will support legislation that would allow the state to confiscate a vehicle and auction it off if a drunken driver is involved in an accident that kills or injures someone.

He also supports a plan that would take funding away from schools that allow students who can’t read or write to graduate. The bill, as currently planned, would check the transcripts of students enrolled in remedial English and math classes in community colleges, then penalize elementary and secondary schools that gave that student a passing grade.

The proposal would allow the state to withhold up to 50 percent of the funds previously paid to the schools over the years that those students attended classes. That money would be placed in a fund to increase remedial education, he said.

, DataTimes