The first one — preferred by Democratic and Republican leaders on the Transportation Committee — is a $16.2 billion proposal for the 2025-27 biennium that finishes promised projects and fills a $1 billion hole left behind by former Gov. Jay Inslee. It's funded by an increase in electric vehicle registration fees, a bump in gas tax and dedicating existing sales tax revenue to transportation work.
The second one postpones projects and cuts workforce development programs to staff up the state ferry system and the state patrol to meet the shortfall. Projects like the North Spokane Corridor, construction on Snoqualmie Pass and the work to build new hybrid-electric ferries would be shelved for at least six years.
"We either make cuts to find that billion dollars or we look to find new revenue," said Sen. Curtis King, the Senate Transportation Committee's ranking Republican. "We chose the latter."
Of course, the proposal still must win approval from lawmakers in the state Senate and House, as well as Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson.
But King — along with Sen. Marko Liias, the committee's Democratic leader — said transportation revenue is so "inadequate" that they hoped their fellow legislators would back the new revenue package over the all-cuts proposal.
Hours after senators released their plan, House transportation leaders put out their own, smaller spending proposal. Most notably, the House plan includes a "Highway Use Fee" that would charge motorists for each mile driven, a revision of the road usage charge state Rep. Jake Fey has twice failed to move out of the House Transportation Committee he leads in previous sessions.
The House's $15 billion proposal would delay $1.3 billion in projects scheduled to begin between 2025 and 2031, but it didn't specify which projects would be postponed.
Where the Money Comes From
The Senate's proposed revenue package would bring in about $10.2 billion in new funding over six years, and leave a $1.1 billion cushion for the "uncertainty" surrounding costs of construction and federal funding, Liias said.
The package is funded by shifting 0.3 percent of the state sales tax to the transportation budget beginning in 2027, which would bring in about $800 million a year.
That money would be supplemented by another $500 million in new annual revenue, most of which would come from a 6 cents per gallon gas-tax increase, a $50 increase to electric vehicle registration and a $25 increase to register hybrid cars. Increases to registration fees and the gas tax would be grow 2 percent every year through 2031 to help meet inflation.
The gas tax hike would bring the gas tax to 55.4 cents per gallon. The federal gas tax remains at 18.4 cents per gallon, unchanged since 1993, the year Bill Clinton took office as president.
The package also proposes a 10 percent luxury-vehicle tax on the portion of the sale price over $100,000, a $1-per-attendee assessment on venues that can fit 20,000 attendees, a $10 fee on all traffic infractions and a $125 fine for speeding in work zones.
The revenue proposal does not include a pay-per-mile road usage charge being discussed in the House.
On the other hand, the all-cuts proposal would cut $941 million in construction projects over the next two years, and reduce state agency operating costs by $156 million. That would include scuttling programs to hire more workers for the beleaguered ferry system, and to fill the more than 200 vacancies on the Washington State Patrol, which is about 30 percent of its workforce.
All Cuts Budget Is 'Unacceptable'
Liias said the "bare-bones, all-cuts budget is unacceptable." Liias said he and King — along with committee vice chair Sen. Bill Ramos, D-Issaquah, and assistant ranking member Sen. Keith Goehner, R-Chelan — worked collaboratively to build the budget and agreed that it focused on the right things.
"We need to finish projects, preserve our infrastructure and make our roads safer," Liias said.
In January, while still building the budget proposals behind closed doors, Liias had said the state loses "public confidence when they see a half-built bridge for five years."
The priority of the new revenue is to get projects done, Liias said, namechecking the north-south highway in Spokane, new electric ferries and improvements on Highway 18.
The plan would also bump up spending on preservation projects for roads and bridges. The state currently only spends enough to meet less than half of highway preservation project needs. The new revenue package would increase that spending, to meet 86 percent of those needs in 2031 by funding an additional $2 billion in state and local road preservation projects.
Safety was also top of mind for Liias and King. In 2023, Washington reached a 33-year high for deaths and major injuries on its roadways. The spending proposal puts $450 million to highway safety, $700 million to state and local safety projects and $366 million for active transportation projects to help drive the number of deaths and injuries down.
King said the bipartisan proposal came from "hours of talk and negotiations."
"I believe we were heard. Our requests were given consideration and, in a lot of cases, they were given to us," he said.
The package's inclusion of an agreement from the Senate Ways and Means Committee to dedicate existing sales tax to transportation spending also helped to win King's support.
"That was an offer that we've been after ... five or six years," King said of the sales tax. "From my standpoint, it was an offer we couldn't refuse."
King acknowledged that seeing a Republican stamp of approval on a spending package that includes new fees and taxes may be a shock to some in his party, but he said the spending would "meet most, if not all, of the needs we currently have."
"It's the reality of life," King said. "Nobody likes to raise taxes. My side doesn't like to raise taxes. But the realities of life are what they are."
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