OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington state lawmakers pressed ahead Monday with a series of mostly driving-related fee increases to raise money for road repairs and other transportation needs.
The fee increases, which include an 80 percent hike for driver's licenses, passed out of the Senate Transportation Committee. They would raise an estimated $52 million next year and an average of $80 million each year over the next decade.
The money is a fraction of the $3.6 billion in transportation funds that Gov. Chris Gregoire had sought to secure over the next decade. In December, a task force she convened said the state needs to raise $21 billion over 10 years for projects on roads, bridges, ferries and other transportation requirements.
"This is the art of what is possible," said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who chairs the committee.
The centerpiece of the governor's plan was a $1.50 fee per barrel of oil refined in the state, which Haugen declared a nonstarter last week. A stripped-down barrel fee remains alive in the House.
Other fee increases that advanced in the Senate include those for car dealership licenses, replacement motorcycle license plates and copies of drivers' records. The cost of a title application would also spike from five dollars to $12.50.
A separate bill that recently passed through the committee would charge a $100 annual fee to owners of electric cars. The fee would help make up for the lack of gas taxes paid by electric car drivers. Washington's gas tax stands at 37.5 cents per gallon, and is the state's largest source of transportation funding.
An analysis by Eric de Place of the Sightline Institute found that the barrel fee would raise more than twice as much money as it would cost Washington taxpayers, with oil companies and Oregon drivers shouldering much of the remaining burden.
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