To see Sen. Wilson’s speech on SB 5801, click here.
OLYMPIA – Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, led opposition on the Senate floor Saturday to a plan that would raise gas taxes six cents a gallon and keep right on going.
Senate Bill 5801, approved 31-18, would add a new feature to Washington’s gas tax – an “automatic escalator” clause adding two percent every year, compounded annually.
The bill would add six cents this year to Washington’s 49.4-cent-a-gallon gas tax for a total of 55.4 cents, giving Washington the fourth-highest gas tax in the nation. By 2031, the tax would be 62.4 cents – and it would continue to rise, without a vote of the Legislature or the people, every year for the rest of time.
The state with the highest tax on gasoline is California, at 69.8 cents a gallon. Wilson noted that state-by-state gas-tax rankings do not include all costs imposed by their respective legislatures. Counting all taxes, fees and measures adopted in the name of climate change, Washington motorists now pay over $1 a gallon as a result of legislative policy.
“Now already with the taxes and fees between gas and diesel, we are already over a dollar,” he said. “It’s clear that we are headed for the Number One seed, that famous spot, to be the most expensive fuel in the United States of America.”
The gas-tax increase is part of a financing plan for a $16.2 billion 2025-27 transportation budget that also passed Saturday in the Senate. The increase would raise $1.5 billion over the next six years.
The transportation measures now move to the House, which is considering a nine-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase. The House proposal also includes an automatic increase, this one indexed to inflation.
Wilson, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, wound up voting against the tax bill and the budget. He offered an amendment on the Senate floor to eliminate the automatic tax increases but was defeated on a voice vote. Though sponsors said the automatic increases would reduce the need for the Legislature to vote on future gas-tax hikes, Wilson argued the automatic increases usurp a role that should be played by future legislatures and deny taxpayers a voice in the decision.
“We’re putting gas taxes on automatic pilot and we’re putting the citizens of the state on mute,” Wilson said. “Their taxes will keep going up and up, without representation, and the state will keep on taking and taking.”
During the spirited debate on the bill, Wilson offered two other amendments, also defeated, that would have restructured the role of the state transportation commission and required the state to bill owners of private electric vehicles when they juice up at state-owned chargers at public buildings and other facilities. Under current state law, that power is now given away for free.