Phase One of the new 9.5 cent gas tax enacted by legislators in Olympia last session goes into effect today. This first increment is 3 cents per gallon. It'll go up again each of the next 3 years.
Yesterday, I received the 9th District 2005 Legislative Review and Survey Results from Senator Mark Schoesler and Representatives Don Cox and David Buri.
The 9th Distrtict includes the counties of Whitman, Adams, Asotin and Garfield and parts of Spokane and Franklin.
Mssrs. Schoesler, Cox, and Buri inform us that one of the the reasons they opposed the recent 9.5% gas tax increase was that it will provide very little money for the 9th District, as I have pointed out previously. In fact the tax will provide less funding for projects in our district ($13 million) than for bicycle and pedestrian path projects statewide ($21 million over eight years) or fish passage barriers (nearly $19 million).
Think about that as you fill up your tank next time.
Meanwhile, Idaho drops its sales tax by 1% today. Coincidentally enough, Idaho also has the 6th fastest growing job growth in the U.S. Will the last business to leave Eastern Washington please turn out the lights?
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