Foes of gas tax going to court

OLYMPIA – Foes of the state’s looming gas tax hike are trying to stall it in court while they seek enough signatures and votes to kill it.

“People are frustrated, and they want to do something about it,” said Monte Benham, the Eastern Washington coordinator for No New Gas Tax, a political group fighting the increase.

GOP strategist Brett Bader, an adviser to the group, said it has filed a lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court to try to stop the state from selling the construction bonds backed by the new tax. A hearing is slated for July 1, the day the bonds are supposed to be sold, Bader said.

State lawmakers this spring approved phasing in a 9.5-cent increase in the gas tax, slated to start July 1 with an additional 3 cents a gallon.

The measure would raise $8.5 billion for transportation construction, rail projects and mass transit over the next 16 years.

The money would start the work – bolstered by local money – to replace some of the Puget Sound region’s biggest earthquake nightmares: the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the SR 520 floating bridge. Both are decades old. And both are at risk of catastrophic failure, according to the state Department of Transportation, in the next major earthquake.

The plan also calls for reinforcement of highway bridges across the state.

Proponents of the tax and transportation work, including Puget Sound-area chambers of commerce, unions, Realtors and builders, have formed a group called Keep Washington Rolling.

It estimates that the first phase of the increase – 3 cents more in July – will cost an average motorist about $16 a year. When fully implemented, the cost will be about $1 more a week.

“I understand how frustrated a lot of citizens are,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.

“Nobody ever wants to raise taxes, but how do these people expect us to make these safety improvements? The longer you wait, the more expensive it is.”

But shortly after lawmakers left Olympia, gas-tax foes launched Initiative 912, which would veto the gas tax increase. To get it on the November ballot, they must gather about a quarter-million voter signatures by July 8.

“We have to get 10,000 signatures a day,” said Benham, 79, a retired Kennewick engineer.

To do that, he said, the group is paying to have 235,000 petitions inserted into the Thursday editions of five Eastern Washington newspapers, including The Spokesman-Review.

“If everyone were to sign just one – and they were valid signatures – it would be enough,” Benham said.

He said the petitions will be in papers in Wenatchee, the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, Yakima and Spokane, as well as in a Yakima business publication Friday.

If they get enough signatures, they plan to head back to court, asking a judge to delay the gas tax until voters can have their say in November.

Benham and other foes of the tax say that drivers can not afford a gas tax increase now, as oil prices near record highs. Benham said the state also lacks a good plan on how it will spend the money.

“It’s ‘Fill our bank account and trust us,’ ” he said. Yes, the state’s roads need repairs, he said, but the money could be found by making the Department of Transportation more efficient.

Those efficiencies are being put into place, many lawmakers say. But as the tug-of-war continues over the gas tax, transportation advocates say, public safety and the vitality of the state’s economy are at stake.

“The will of the people is to prevent a loss of life from any number of bridges that might collapse,” said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. “I think it’s time to move forward. It’s an emergency.”