OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington drivers are seeing higher prices at the pump following the seven-cents-per-gallon increase in the state’s gas tax on August 1, reported the Associated Press.
The increase is the first of a two-step jump to pay for transportation projects across the state.
With state gas taxes now up to 44.5 cents a gallon, adding in the current federal gas tax of 18.4 cents, the total per gallon gas tax in Washington is now 62.9 cents.
The increase is part of a $16 billion, 16-year transportation revenue package approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor earlier this summer. Next summer, the tax will increase an additional 4.9 cents a gallon, putting the total state tax at 49.4 cents, which based on current rates, would make it the second-highest gas tax in the nation behind Pennsylvania, according to the report, citing the American Petroleum Institute (API).
“Nobody likes to have a tax increase. But we haven’t been as diligent on maintenance and preservation as we’ve needed to be,” State Senator Curtis King (R) said. “We need to invest in that to get caught up. If we don’t do it in the next two or three years—those repairs—it’s going to cost us three or four times more.”
The plan spends $8.8 billion on state and local road projects and $1.4 billion on maintenance and preservation. About $1 billion will go to nonhighway projects, such as bike paths, pedestrian walkways and transit. It also allows Sound Transit to ask voters to pay for potential expansions of its rail line.
House Transportation Committee Chairperson Judy Clibborn (D) said that while the projects will take years, ultimately drivers will see the benefits.
“In the short run, they might be looking at construction, but in the long run, they will see things continuing to work to meet congestion,” she said.
Washington wasn’t the only state to increase its gas tax this year, the news agency said, citing the National Conference of State Legislatures. Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah all increased their taxes, while two other states—Kentucky and North Carolina—altered the structure of their gas taxes in order to limit decreasing revenues.
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