Did you just do a double-take at the gas pump?
Jul 1, 2016, 5:22 PM | Updated: 10:27 pm
Here’s a reminder from Jason Rantz, but you probably aren’t going to like it.
“(Friday) is the start of the final push upward for the gas tax,” Rantz told listeners. “We are getting hit with it as a result of the transportation package that passed in Olympia last year. You’re going to get hit with a 4.9 cent increase per gallon of gas. This is on top of the 7 cent boost that you got last August.”
Related: Plan to tax Washington drivers per mile moving forward
State Senator Curtis King was among those who pushed for the gas tax increases. He had previously said that “any gas tax increase, or any tax increase, is always tough to push. But this is how we have chosen to fund our transportation system. And our system needs help.”
The gas tax in Washington state is now around 68 cents per gallon. That makes it the . The taxes are going to a , the bulk of which include highway and infrastructure projects. There is a small portion dedicated to projects for bike lanes, bikes and ferries.
That’s something Rantz notes, and can stand behind. Unlike other taxes that end up going to projects outside of the car — such as those bike lanes — leaving people stuck in traffic, the gas tax primarily goes toward infrastructure projects that drivers can benefit from.
“In theory, if it’s done well, it will help the driver,” Rantz said. “These dollars go to complete the western Highway 520 bridge segments in Seattle. It’s going to widen I-405 from Bellevue to Renton — even though we were told last year that you can’t build more lanes, and they’re widening the lanes there. Highway 167 gets an extension from Puyallup to the Port of Tacoma — which was supposed to be done in the 1980s.”
So there’s your silver lining — while taxes generally provide a punch that keeps on hitting you with projects that don’t benefit the driver, this will .
“The thing is when you get increase that small, in that long of a period of time (it’s not as bad),” Rantz said. “If you got hit with an 11 cent tax all at once, that’s noticeable. A 4.9 cent increase, that’s not as noticable. Maybe that’s me, because I barely drive. I go to get gas once every seven weeks — maybe.”
“I get gas once a week, so I’ll notice,” Producer Jacob Rummel chimed in.