A new way to pay for transportation needs

November 29, 2019

Hello,

On the day before Thanksgiving a judge in King County blocked the new Initiative 976 law from taking effect this coming Thursday, as scheduled. I understand why local governments decided to challenge the new law in court, because lowering car-tab fees affects the amount of money for local transportation needs, but that doesn't change the fact that more than 60% of voters in Clark County said "yes" to I-976 and $30 car tabs -- a supermajority whose opinion should be respected.

Car tabs and the state gas tax have long been the primary sources of funding for transportation projects, from roads and bridges to support for public transit. Neither is completely reliable, however, which is why the state transportation commission has been studying a Road Usage Charge. As mentioned in my previous e-newsletter, I was among the legislative stakeholders on the state’s Road Usage Charge Pilot Project Steering Committee (and a participant in the Road Usage Charge Pilot), so I get the arguments being made for this approach -- but I also know people have valid concerns about how it would be managed (like how it could affect their privacy).

Fortunately, there's a new proposal on the table that would repurpose an existing stream of revenue and make it available for transportation purposes. It comes from our Senate Republican budget leader, Senator John Braun of Lewis County, whose legislative district includes the northernmost part of Clark County. I'm planning to be a co-sponsor when the bill is filed ahead of the 2020 legislative session.

The plan would:

• begin shifting the state sales-tax revenue from vehicle purchases into the transportation budget, increasing the amount shifted by 10 percent each year starting in 2020;
  
  
• complete the transition over 10 years, which would avoid putting a big hole in the operating budget that pays for K-12 education and other day-to-day government operations;
  
  
• provide an estimated $30+ billion for transportation investments over the next 20 years, approximately double the value of the “Connecting Washington” package of projects and revenue approved by lawmakers in 2015.

As Senator Braun noted in a news release, the approach also has a progressive quality to it because people who spend more on a vehicle will pay more tax – and as he put it, referring to the huge car-tab cost increases caused by Sound Transit,  "that’s more equitable than car-tab costs that fluctuate by hundreds of dollars based on nothing more than your address.” (Voters in in Pierce and Snohomish counties, which are in the Sound Transit taxing district, also approved I-976 handily.)

Sen. Curtis King of Yakima, who is Republican leader on the Senate Transportation Committee and also serves a portion of Clark County, added that the idea "could help the Legislature honor the voters’ desire for affordable car tabs while addressing funding concerns resulting from the passage of Initiative 976.”

The preliminary injunction issued against the I-976 law is not the final word on the matter. The original voter-approved $30 car-tab law was challenged all the way up to the state Supreme Court, which struck it down -- and lawmakers responded by passing a $30 car-tab law themselves (that was in 2001). But let me make it clear that the idea of repurposing vehicle sales-tax revenue toward transportation needs is independent of any legal action related to I-976 -- and the time for this common-sense proposal has come.

Sincerely,

# # #

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Legislative E-mail: Ann.Rivers@leg.wa.gov
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