OLYMPIA — The North Olympic Peninsula will receive $431 million from the state Legislature’s 16-year, $8.5 billion transportation plan, local lawmakers said Monday.
About $300 million of that total will go toward the Hood Canal Bridge retrofit and replacement project now under way.
The transportation plan, passed Sunday just hours before the Legislature adjourned for the year, calls for the state gasoline tax, now 28 cents, to rise 9.5 cents over four years — 3 cents this summer, another 3 cents next summer, 2 cents the following year and 1.5 cents in 2008.
The package also includes new weight fees on cars and passenger trucks, higher driver’s license fees, and tolls.
Rep. Lynn Kessler — the Hoquiam Democrat who as majority leader got the House to revote on the transportation plan on Sunday after rejecting it the day before — said the Peninsula’s allotment will fund several North Olympic Peninsula projects.
Those include U.S. Highway 101 safety measures through Blyn, roadside improvements along state Highway 112 between Neah Bay and Sekiu, and truck passing lanes on U.S. Highway 101 in the Mount Walker area south of Quilcene.
It also funds widening U.S. Highway 101 to four lanes between Shore Road and Kitchen-Dick Road between Port Angeles and Sequim, fixing the final two-lane stretch between the two cities.
And work to preserve and expand the aging Port Townsend ferry terminal is also included.
Second vote
After the budget was voted down on Saturday, Kessler introduced a motion for reconsideration. The budget passed Sunday on a second vote.
Kessler voted no on Saturday and yes on Sunday.
“I’ve only changed vote one other time in 13 years,” she said Monday.
“I’m not excited that I voted yes, but my district will be the great recipient for all of this.
“I think that it’s quite a bump in the gas price, but that will come down nationally. Oil companies made a $28 billion profit last year,” she said.
Kessler, along with Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, represent the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
Buck, who voted against the transportation plan both days, said Monday that he thinks his constituents will be “very unhappy” with the transportation budget’s vehicle weight fees, recreational vehicle fees and gas tax increase.
And Hargrove called the transportation budget “OK,” but he always opposes gas tax increases, he said, because rural residents drive so much and have less access to public transportation.
Sponsors said the gas tax, fully implemented, will add $57 a year to the average motorist’s fuel bill.
The average price of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.49 a gallon on Sunday, according to AAA of Washington.
