(The Center Square) – The Washington State House of Representatives passed its $15.2 billion transportation budget for 2025-27 on Wednesday, setting the stage for negotiations with the Senate, which previously passed its own more expensive version of a transportation budget.
While the two budgets differ in some significant ways, they do have something in common: increasing the state gas tax.
The House version looks to raise the tax 9 cents, indexed to inflation, while the Senate version calls for a 6-cent hike that would rise 2% annually to account for inflation starting in 2026.
The House only passed its transportation budget, not the revenue bill to fund it.
The House transportation budget allocates funds for construction, preservation, operations and multimodal projects across the Evergreen State, including support for the Washington State Patrol, the Department of Licensing and the Washington State Department of Transportation.
House Transportation Chair Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, noted the budget’s focus on completing existing projects.
“We’ve made the investments. Now we’re taking the necessary steps to pay for them – and protect them – for the long haul,” Fey said in a news release. “Washingtonians deserve a transportation system that works and lasts.”
Key projects in the House budget include safety improvements on State Route 18 in southeastern King County; continuation of the North Spokane Corridor freeway project to provide a faster, more efficient north-south route through Spokane to reduce travel time and congestion on existing arterials; the Puget Sound Gateway Program to complete critical missing links in the state’s highway and freight network; and maintaining a commitment to repairing fish passage barriers to restore access to spawning and rearing habitats as part of salmon recovery efforts.
Rep. Suzanne Schmid, R-Spokane Valley, spoke out in support of the Senate transportation bill as amended by the House. She had some reservations about certain aspects of the legislation, but threw in her support largely due to its funding the long-standing Spokane project.
“This is a top priority for my community,” she said. “It is in the budget; it’s part of the budget.”
The House approved its budget on a 66-30 vote that included a handful of Republican “yes” votes and a few Democrats voting “no.”
Teams from the House and Senate will negotiate a final budget before the scheduled end of the legislative session on April 27.
