Traffic on Highway 9 in Clearview in 2022.
Photo by Michael Whitney.
OLYMPIA — The state Legislature Saturday approved a bipartisan, $15.5 billion transportation plan that in part increases the state gas tax for the first time since 2016.
Regular gas will rise from $0.494 per gallon now to $0.554 on July 1. It codifies a 2% annual gas tax increase from summer 2026 onward. Diesel gas tax will rise by 3 cents per gallon July 1, and another 3 cents in summer 2027, then have 2% increases every year from 2028 onward.
Negotiations on different approaches to funding roads between the House and Senate delayed the vote by a month. The Senate balked on ratifying the House version.
The House initially sought to anchor funding using a 9-cent gas tax increase.
As one tradeoff, Senators withdrew from its proposed bill to use bonds backed by toll fees to construct new projects, said State Sen. Keith Goehner (R-Dryden), a ranking member of the Senate Transportation Committee, in an interview.
Elsewhere in discussions, “for example, the Senate wasn’t supportive of the House’s proposed highway user fee, and the House wasn’t a fan of the Senate’s EV fee,” Christian Lamas, a spokesperson with the Washington Senate Democrats said.
The House euthanized state Rep. Jake Fey’s (D-Tacoma) proposals for a per-mile gas tax and a road usage charge earlier this session.
The result of taking away bond capacity means funding will be limited to deferred maintenance needs, Goehner said. His 12th District stretches from Monroe east to Wenatchee.
Even so, “the main thing people will see is we need to raise the amount of money by the condition of our infrastructure,” Goehner said.
(A bill to use bonds toward replacing the Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River into Oregon passed in mid-April. It turns it into a toll bridge to pay the bonds.)
Practically all fees tied to driving and owning a car will increase. Existing fees for car tabs based on gross vehicle weight will increase for everyone — for vehicles over 4,000 pounds such as SUVs and pickups, it’s by $27. Standard driver’s licenses will change from $72 for a license to $80 to get a license with an eight-year expiration date. A fee on a new tire will increase from $1 to now $5 per tire, so $20 out the door for four.
State ferries also may apply a credit card fee soon for those paying by card.
The delay on the transportation funding bill happened near the start of April. In late March, the Senate sent its plan to the House for ratification. On April 2, the House passed its version which basically overrode and rewrote the Senate’s version to instead use its version. The Senate balked. A conference was convened to negotiate which led to this result
