The state Legislature is set to approve a revised two-year, $7.5 billion transportation budget that boosts state funding for the Murray Morgan Bridge in Tacoma. It also paves the way for a toll increase on the Tacoma Narrows bridge and a new toll on the car-pool lanes on Highway 167 in South King County.

The Senate vote on Tuesday was 45-4. The House is expected to follow suit today and send House Bill 2878 to Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn Thursday after a 60-day session.

State funding for the bridge across Thea Foss Waterway on East 11th Street would increase to nearly $40 million. That’s up from the $26.5 million the state Department of Transportation previously had earmarked either for demolition or replacement of the bridge. Still, that is only half of the estimated cost of rehabilitating the 95-year-old structure, which was closed to traffic last October.

“This gets us halfway there,” Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma said Tuesday. “What we need to do now is put together the rest of the puzzle.”

Baarsma said the next move is to meet with state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond and “work out a pathway to put the final funding together. We’re not necessarily saying the state should come up with the entire amount.”

Some of the overall $80 million cost might come from federal and other sources, the mayor said.

City and state officials have been talking about transferring ownership to the city ever since the state built a cable-stayed bridge to carry traffic into the Tideflats at South 21st Street and moved the designation for state Highway 509 from 11th Street to 21st Street. City officials have balked at the terms.

Last fall’s passage of Initiative 960 requires the Legislature to approve any fee increases by the government, so legislators preapproved toll increases over the Narrows as well as the tolls that will be imposed this spring on Highway 167 between Auburn and Renton. Lawmakers didn’t specify amounts.

A citizen advisory committee has recommended raising the standard Narrows bridge toll to $4 for cash customers and to $2.75 for Good To Go transponder customers on July 1. Both would be a $1 increase. The public comment period on that proposal won’t end before the Legislature adjourns on Thursday.

On Highway 167, a variable toll of 50 cents to $9 will be charged to solo drivers who want to buy their way into the car-pool lanes on a nine- to 12-mile section, starting later this spring. The budget instructs the seven-member Washington Transportation Commission to monitor the tolls and adjust them as necessary.

The budget for operating the Narrows bridges is roughly the same. Lawmakers cut nine of 23 DOT jobs and got rid of consulting contracts and curtailed staff travel, but they also boosted payments to TransCore, the company hired to collect tolls. The DOT also is supposed to develop a plan to further reduce bridge operating costs and report to the Legislature by Sept. 30.

The budget reflects higher costs for many projects, including adding car-pool lanes to Interstate 5 through Tacoma and replacing the Nalley Valley viaduct. The cost of the viaduct project is now pegged at $1.54 billion. Most of the work is scheduled for 2009-2013.

Replacement of the Port of Tacoma interchange on Interstate 5, a $45 million project, would be postponed four years and would not be finished until 2017. The cost of widening I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass also has increased. That $545 million project won’t be built until 2009-2015.

The total $7.5 billion budget is about $128 million lower than the budget that was adopted last year. But that isn’t because lawmakers chopped a lot of projects. Rather, most of the reduction is because the new Narrows bridge came in at $735 million instead of the $849 million that was originally budgeted.

The transportation budget includes $5.9 billion for the DOT, $349 million for the Washington State Patrol and $237 million for the Department of Licensing. It also shows the state pays more than $300 million a year just making payments on past loans.

Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436

blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics

TRANSPORTATION SPENDING, AT A GLANCE

The revised transportation budget that will be sent to Gov. Chris Gregoire also:

 • Increases funding for the “super” driver license program, which enables faster crossing at the Canadian border, by $3.5 million. The Department of Licensing would add three offices – for a total of 14 – to those that can issue the enhanced license, and keep those offices open for more hours.

 • Adds money to assign six more State Patrol troopers to U.S. 2 in Snohomish County, the state’s newest “killer highway.”

 • Earmarks $85 million for construction of three 100-car vessels to replace the four steel electric ferries that were pulled out of service late last year because of deterioration, and to sell the old ferries.

 • Allots $283 million to build three 144-car ferries, whose construction has been delayed for at least four years.

 • Maintains a freeze on ferry fare increases.

 • Puts most ferry terminal work on hold, although $9 million is earmarked to replace part of the Vashon Island terminal.

 • Instructs licensing officials to see if they can find a way to exempt vehicle owners from having to replace their license plates every seven years if the plates still reflect light.

 • Uses $1.56 million to pay for the cost of the Proposition 1 roads-and-transit election last November.

 • Orders the transportation department to give a full accounting of progress on all 427 projects that were supposed to be built with money from gas tax increases approved in 2003 and 2005.

 • Orders the transportation department to develop a list of low-cost improvements that could be paid for if the Legislature puts tolls on the Highway 520 bridge as early as 2009 (years before construction would begin).

 • Pays for a study of putting light rail on Interstate 90 across Lake Washington.

 • Gives a low-interest loan of $500,000 to Tacoma Rail to expand a maintenance facility and reduce pollution from idling engines.