Pay More At The Pump For Millions In Projects Headed To Yakima – Dave’s Diary

 It’s been no easy task, but the task is done. They talked about it, met with residents and argued among themselves but there is a new state transportation packaged headed to the governor’s desk. It will create jobs and it will add to and improve roads, but it comes at a cost to the gas-buying public. But there are also some reforms that will help make the money go farther.

These are the highlights lifted from a press release sent today from state Sen. Curtis King’s office: …the new $16 billion transportation package with a broad bipartisan vote….suite of 12 reform and revenue bills now headed to Go….will provide over 100,000 jobs, congestion relief and improved roadways statewide.

King, R-Yakima, is pleased that cost-saving transportation reforms called for by the people of Washington remain.

“The reforms built into this package are groundbreaking. For the first time the sales tax that’s being charged on our highway projects will be returned for use on transportation work instead of being siphoned off to the general fund. There are changes to streamline our state’s ferry construction, improved permitting processes and much more,” said King. “People who understand the complexities of transportation projects know these reforms will truly transform the way projects are managed by our state’s transportation department. There will be greater accountability and taxpayer dollars will be stretched further than ever.

“We also stopped the implementation of a low-carbon fuel standard. That’s huge,” King said. “This unnecessary and arbitrary charge with no environmental or transportation benefit would have raised the price of gas anywhere between 70 cents to well over a dollar a gallon. This would be a huge hit to the pocketbook of every citizen in our state and negatively impact our economic vitality.”

The final transportation-revenue package will devote $8.8 billion to new construction and $1.4 billion to maintain and preserve roads and bridges across the state. The previous transportation-revenue package approved by the Legislature, in 2005, allocated no money for maintenance and preservation. The primary source of revenue will come from an 11.9 cent-per-gallon gas-tax increase, phased in over two years.