Historic legislative session for transportation in Washington

Legislators approved a nearly $17 billion, 16-year transportation package—Move Ahead Washington—one of the largest transportation packages in state history. When transportation proposals halted at the end of the 2021 session, legislators were especially motivated to pass a package this year. The package prioritizes transit and other multimodal options, direct funding to complete Connecting Washington projects, and investments in state preservation and maintenance needs.

The package drew from several revenue sources, including a one-time $2 billion dollar transfer from the general fund, $5.4 billion from the Climate Commitment Act, and ongoing annual transfers from the operating fund and the Public Works Assistance Account (PWAA). The transfer from the PWAA is deeply disappointing to municipalities that use the account to support critical infrastructure needs. Though the Move Ahead WA package makes significant investments in several important areas, collective city needs were largely ignored. In total, only $5 million annually was dedicated to the Transpiration Investment Board for city street preservation over the 16-year period (totaling $80 million). This investment is appreciated but remains a substantial underinvestment in what cities need to adequately address significant preservation and maintenance costs.

While few investments were made into local preservation and maintenance needs, AWC priority legislation to expand local authority for Transportation Benefit Districts (TBDs) was successfully amended into the transportation package. Voters may now reauthorize 10-year extensions of a TBDs sales and use tax. An additional 0.1% increase may also be added through councilmanic authority to a TBD sales and use tax.

Noting that the state’s gas tax was not a renewed revenue source for the Move Ahead WA plan, conversations around road usage charges are expected to occur during the legislative interim (now through December). This is also based partly on legislation that failed earlier in the session.

With the passage of the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) at the federal level, Move Ahead WA calls for the Joint Transportation Committee to convene a working group (which will include one representative from AWC) to discuss state and local federal formula funds splits. This discussion will include four new programs: the Bridge Replacement Program, the Carbon Reduction Program, the National Electric Vehicle Program, and the PROTECT (Resiliency) grant program.

Lastly, HB 2076, which provides uniform statewide regulation of TNCs (also known as rideshare companies) and TNC drivers, would have preempted cities from imposing any new tax, fee, or change in rate on TNCs. With help from AWC staff, the bill was ultimately amended to ensure that the preemption of cities did not apply to generally applicable business and sales taxes.