By Bill Lucia | Editor
Washington’s state gas tax will rise 1.1 cents on July 1 to 56.5 cents per gallon. It’ll mark the first 2% annual inflation bump under a 2025 law that initially raised the tax by 6 cents. The per-gallon tax on diesel will climb, too, from 58.4 cents to 59.5 cents. Fuel taxes are the biggest source of funding for Washington’s transportation budget, but collections have been declining. And new state budget projections show that, overall, state transportation revenue is falling short of what lawmakers had planned on.
Also in today’s edition…
The state Supreme Court hears arguments in a case about where transgender prisoners are housed in Washington’s corrections system.
Congress approves a bipartisan affordable housing bill.
And, the Bonneville Power Administration gets a new leader.
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Gas prices in Washington are among the highest in the country, averaging around $5.32 for a gallon of regular unleaded on Tuesday. (Photo by Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
By Jerry Cornfield
In addition to the higher gas tax, Washington will see other increases with vehicle-related fees next week — including truck weight fees, sales tax on boats, and title and registration fees for vehicles previously registered in another state.
Even so, Washington chief economist Dave Reich on Monday issued a new forecast showing transportation revenue collections will be $36 million lower than anticipated for this transportation budget and $130 million less for the 2027-29 spending plan that lawmakers and Gov. Bob Ferguson will write next session.
The state’s transportation budget is separate from general spending. Reich estimated transportation revenue would check in around $8.7 billion in the current budget cycle.
By Jake Goldstein-Street
The state Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments in the case of Amber Kim, a transgender woman who had been held in the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor before she was moved to a men’s prison in Monroe.
Kim was the first transgender woman transferred back to a men’s prison in Washington. This happened after she was found to have had sex with her cellmate at the women’s prison. Kim argues that the move by corrections officials is unconstitutional, cruel punishment that puts her safety at risk and sets back her transition. The state argues it was a matter of prison safety. The state Department of Corrections reported last month that the women’s prison held 20 transgender prisoners.
Separately, the Trump administration is investigating how Washington houses incarcerated trans people, after a lawsuit from a prisoner in the state’s women’s prison alleged a transgender woman attacked her there.
By Jacob Fischler
The bipartisan housing bill aims to lower the cost of homeownership as members of both parties zero in on affordability ahead of the midterm elections. The House passed the bill 358-32 on Tuesday, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk. This came a day after the Senate’s 85-5 vote. The bill would reduce certain regulatory hurdles, including environmental reviews, to home construction and expand the possible uses of federal housing funds. It also includes a provision to ban private equity firms from buying single-family homes.
By Micah Drew
A former Montana Public Service Commissioner will be the next person to lead the federal government’s nonprofit northwest power marketer. Travis Kavulla will be the next chief executive and administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced earlier this week.
After his commissioner term in Montana, which concluded in 2019, Kavulla worked for the California Independent System Operator, which operates much of that state’s power grid, did a short stint at think tank R Street Institute, and has been a vice president at NRG Energy for the last seven years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The BPA markets power from 31 federal dams throughout the Columbia River Basin and one nuclear plant. It also operates a majority of the region’s high-voltage transmission grid and funds one of the world’s largest fish and wildlife programs.
Kavulla will be sworn into the job in Portland, Oregon, on June 29.
ICYMI
Postal Service skips hearing with WA lawmakers on mail-in ballot rules | by Jake Goldstein-Street
4 takeaways from the WA Democratic Party convention | by Jerry Cornfield
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