New WA law boosting gas tax by 6 cents takes effect Tuesday. Here’s where that money goes
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Washington's gas tax rises 6 cents Tuesday, generating $1.6B over six years.
- Lawmakers cite inflation as major driver of the new tax hike.
- Bipartisan support emerged for the proposal.
Attention drivers: On Tuesday, Washington state gets a 6-cent-per-gallon bump in its gas tax.
Washington has faced a massive backlog in its highway system’s maintenance and preservation needs, said state Sen. Marko Liias, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. The gas-tax boost is meant to help the state catch up after it grappled with “catastrophic inflation in transportation costs” over the pandemic, Liias said.
The tax rate for regular gas will climb from 49.4 cents per gallon to 55.4 cents on July 1. Starting next summer, it’ll rise 2% annually — which Liias said translates to about a penny per year moving forward — to create predictability and keep up with rising ownership of fuel-efficient cars.
The bipartisan gas-tax hike was part of the state’s $3.2 billion transportation package, and is the first such increase in close to a decade. Over the next six years, that hike, combined with diesel-tax adjustments, will bring in an additional $1.6 billion, according to estimates from Senate Democrats’ staff.
Because of declining wholesale gas prices, drivers won’t necessarily get struck by a 6-cent jump at the gas station. Still, the state already had one of the highest gas taxes in the country, and the change comes at a time when many Washington residents are struggling to get by.
Lawmakers have acknowledged the financial strain that constituents are feeling. But they also say that the hikes are needed to keep the transportation system in good repair and to avoid prolonged construction-project pauses.
Liias, an Edmonds Democrat, said he understands folks’ frustrations surrounding ballooning prices, including with housing, child care and food.
“We weren’t cavalier about the fact that this is going to have an impact. We wanted to make sure our pencils were as sharp as possible and we were getting the most value,” he said. “But at the end of the day, this is something that all of us need and depend on.
As of Friday, Washington had the third-most-expensive gas price in the U.S. at $4.45 per gallon, behind California and Hawaii, according to AAA. The national average was $3.21.
Some Republican support for gas tax
Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much, especially when it comes to tax bumps. But the transportation-revenue package passed by lawmakers this session did attract bipartisan support.
The final transportation package cleared the Senate 31-17 in late April. Five Republicans joined the Democratic majority in voting in favor, although three Democrats sided with the dissent.
“I think we’re in an environment where any kind of bipartisanship is sort of rare and fleeting,” Liias said. “... There was a bipartisan ‘yes’ vote, there was a bipartisan ‘no’ vote. And I think that reflects a good process.”
State Sen. Curtis King, the ranking Republican on the Senate Transportation Committee, said that the cost of several mega-projects have jumped significantly in the past year or two. The gas-tax hike was key to ensuring that such construction could continue, the Yakima Republican said. An example: Ongoing work at Snoqualmie Pass.
If a driver uses roughly 20 gallons of gas a week — or about 1,000 gallons per year — they will pay an additional $60 per year in gas tax, King noted.
“I would submit that if our roads and our bridges were not maintained and brought up to the level they need to be, the damage that these roads with potholes and cracks would do to our cars — and what it would take to repair that damage over a year or two — is far beyond that $60 additional money you might be paying,” he said.
The state’s transportation revenue forecast
Gas consumption in Washington has fallen more than 2% annually since it peaked in 2018, leading to a drop in accompanying tax revenue, the Washington State Transportation Economic and Revenue Forecast Council revealed June 25.
Like their operating-budget counterparts, transportation budget writers were tasked with closing a multi-billion-dollar shortfall this year. The two-year deficit came to more than $1 billion and the six-year deficit was north of $4 billion, Liias said.
Similar to King, he argued that poor road quality could lead to higher expenses for the state’s drivers via big-ticket purchases. Think: more frequent tire and window replacements.
“As chair of the transportation committee, I feel like my responsibility is to ask folks to chip in a little bit more to make the system better, more predictable, to work better for all of us,” he said. “That’s the best way to spend our money, rather than continuing to pay for a system that’s not meeting our needs.”
Why is Washington’s gas so high?
The state’s fuel tax isn’t the only reason for Washington’s relatively high at-the-pump cost.
One factor lies in the state’s costlier primary supplies of petroleum that come from locales such as Canada and Alaska rather than the South or Southeast, KIRO 7 has reported. And charges stemming from the state’s Climate Commitment Act that are incurred by Washington’s largest carbon emitters also get passed down to the consumer.
The current 49.4-cent gas tax includes expenses tied to the state’s cap-and-trade program and the Clean Fuel Standard: an estimated 27.4 cents per gallon.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "New WA law boosting gas tax by 6 cents takes effect Tuesday. Here’s where that money goes."
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