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Driving Miss McCleary: 10% gas hike proposed for K-12 funding

Jan 6, 2017, 5:45 AM | Updated: 11:42 pm

Gas prices would jump. So might utility bills. And the airline, train, and truck transportation industries could see costs climb.

As details of begin to take form in a bill expected to be introduced next week, one fact has become clear: The governor isn鈥檛 cowed by the failure of a more moderate carbon tax ballot measure that 60 percent of the state voters rejected only two months ago.

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Chris Davis, the governor鈥檚 senior adviser for energy and carbon markets, said Gov. Inslee鈥檚 greenhouse gas tax proposal is an improvement on in a variety of ways. It corrals needed funds for education in a state facing a to spend more money on K-12 schools; it provides a small business tax cut, and it prompts a decline in carbon emissions.

鈥淚t provides a good chunk of the same tax relief that the bill last fall provided while providing further greenhouse gas reduction,鈥 Davis said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a smarter package. It gets more done with the money and makes better use of it.鈥

If approved by the legislature, the bulk of the new carbon tax money 鈥 nearly $4 billion over the next two years 鈥 will come from drivers using the state鈥檚 gas pumps. The proposed tax would add 10 cents to every dollar of gas in the first year, making a $3 gallon of gas cost $3.30 for example. But it also would adjust upward annually at the rate of inflation plus 3.5 percent. It also would tax heating costs if the power source is fossil-fuel based, such as natural gas, oil, and coal.

Bob Plotnick, a professor at the University of Washington and , said this type of carbon tax effectively is the same thing as a sales tax. And in a state already loaded with , it will disproportionately affect the group these taxes always hit the hardest: The poor.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to hit some poor households much harder than others on the transportation side if they are using private transportation,鈥 he said. 鈥淪ales taxes hit the poor more than middle class and upper class because they spend more on those kinds of items and they don鈥檛 have any savings.鈥

Davis said the governor understands this type of tax hits people with low incomes the hardest. He said the bill will include some relief in form of money earmarked for clean mass transit ($250 million) and money for job growth ($200 million). But the details have yet to be ironed out.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of what we鈥檙e still working out,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat will depend on how the legislature chooses to do so. Our proposal puts significant funding into clean transportation, greater transit, and greater access.鈥

George Hamlin, president of and a transportation industry analyst, said rail and trucking companies won鈥檛 like or support the new tax. But if it is approved, they won鈥檛 be able to do anything about additional fuel costs in Washington State.

Airlines and jet fuel are another matter, he said. 鈥淵ou will try to avoid the tax by tanking up somewhere else than in Washington state, for example,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd regardless, it will increase the cost of a ticket.鈥

Exempt from the carbon tax are manufacturers of aluminum, concrete and big agriculture (except for crop transport). While all three produce , Davis said the state wants to focus on fossil fuel burning 鈥 and on raising money to help pay fund education in the wake of the state Supreme Court’s.

鈥淲e are using this in part to solve a problem that is recognized far and wide which is the K-12 public education problem,鈥 Davis said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e taking a step to solve that in a smart way.鈥

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Driving Miss McCleary: 10% gas hike proposed for K-12 funding