On March 8, the Legislature passed its final transportation budget, which is now on its way to the Governor’s desk for signature. The budget did not change dramatically from the individual budgets proposed by the House and Senate. Both budgets left enough room so that a final compromise budget could incorporate their differences.
The budget maintains the Connecting Washington package funding, including advancement of some projects primarily to align with other corridor construction work.
The budget also includes several provisos:
- A proviso asking the Joint Transportation Committee (JTC) to study the current state of city transportation funding, identify emerging issues, and recommend funding sources to meet current and future needs. The provisos propose $360,000 for JTC to conduct this study, with a report due June 30, 2019. Funding is from the cities’ statewide fuel tax distribution dedicated solely to studies. AWC supported the inclusion of this study and thanks both the House and Senate Transportation Committees for prioritizing this important effort. We look forward to the conversations that will emerge from this work and its recommendations.
- A proviso asking the JTC to study the capital needs of public transportation systems operated by public transportation benefit areas, metropolitan municipal corporations, cities, counties and county transportation authorities. The study will include an inventory of each agency’s fleet, facilities, and replacement and expansion needs. The study will also look at funding sources available to cover these costs. AWC supports efforts to highlight our public transportation system needs.
- A proviso directing the JTC to study the regulation of transportation network companies (TNCs) in Washington. Past legislative efforts over multiple years to consolidate the regulation of TNCs have not been successful. The proviso appropriates $255,000 to study the regulatory framework used by local jurisdictions within Washington and in other states, evaluate the most effective public safety aspects of a regulatory framework, and assess the most efficient and effective regulatory structures for TNCs. The JTC must provide its findings and recommendations by January 14, 2019.
- $300,000 for the JTC to conduct a study of taxi and for-hire services regulated by the state, local governments and port districts. The study shall compare state and local regulation of these private passenger transportation services and may include recommendations for improving the consistency or overall effectiveness and competitive fairness of the current regulatory framework.
See the detailed budget here.