WALeg Day 50: Senate may vote on gas tax hike

OLYMPIA — A proposal to raise the state gasoline tax might get a vote in the Senate today. The legislation was on the schedule for a vote Friday along with the transportation reforms in a package negotiated by a bipartisan team. But after the other changes were approved, a parliamentary question was posed by Democrats about whether the bill that includes the gasoline tax hike and some other changes in fees and taxes needed the two-thirds majority vote instituted by Senate Republicans on the first day of the session. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who is the arbiter of such challenges, is expected to rule on that question today. The House is also expected to start voting on the many bills pushed out of committees in recent weeks. It may go late into the evening in the push to move legislation.