Two starkly different, if both bipartisan, transportation budgets came out of the Washington state Senate Monday. 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, R-Yakima, 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 Gov. Bob Ferguson.
But King — along with Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, the committee's 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 propo.
