(The Center Square) - With Washington gas taxes set to go up again this week, drivers are looking elsewhere to fill up, while critics are questioning if Washington drivers are really getting what they pay for.
The state gas tax is going up by 1.1 cents on Wednesday, bringing the total per-gallon excise tax to 56.5 cents, but many Washington roads and bridges are in serious disrepair.
The July 1 increase is the first “automatic” or “inflation-based” increase since ESHB 2711, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in 2025.
“Last year elected officials passed a bill and it was signed by the governor on transportation funding that included an automatic increase in gas taxes,” said Mountain States Policy Center Transportation Policy Fellow Bob Pishue in a June 26 interview with The Center Square.
“What’s different about the gas tax increase this year is that it’s automatic. There are no new projects that they have to sell to voters to agree to a gas tax increase. It’s now just a tax that will be occurring every single year that Washingtonians will pay every time they fill up.”
The law tacks on an automatic 2% bump every year on July 1 without requiring further public or legislative votes.
This comes on top of the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, and carbon fees paid by drivers per the Climate Commitment Act, which add another roughly 52-cents per gallon.
Washington maintains the third-highest state gas tax in the nation, trailing only California and Pennsylvania.
Supporters of the inflation indexed tax argue that linking it to inflation will not only allow state agencies to keep up with their own rising costs, but also prevent tax increases in the future to fund the highway system.
Critics note that despite the high gas tax paid by drivers, many Washington highways and bridges are in bad shape.
“In the most recent report from Reason Foundation, Washington continues to rank pretty low in terms of spending and road quality,” said Pishue.
That report ranked Washington 48th in the country. In other words, despite all the money pouring in, policy makers in Washington are not prioritizing road maintenance.
The report evaluates a state’s highway system spending and the condition of its roadways. “The most effective and efficient state systems have low average per-mile spending and smooth pavement condition, structurally sound bridges, limited traffic congestion, and low fatality rates,” according to Reason Foundation.
“So not good results for Washington,” said Pishue.
As reported by The Center Square on Feb 19, state transportation officials have warned that 342 of Washington’s bridges are now at least 80 years old, pegging the estimated replacement costs at approximately $9.2 billion.
Charles Prestrud, director of the Coles Transportation Center at Washington Policy Center told The Center Square there is “plenty of blame to go around” when it comes to the dire condition of Washington’s roads and bridges.
“At the top of the list is former Governor [Jay] Inslee. Under his administration annual transportation budgets were submitted to the legislature but they never came close to adequately funding the basic preservation and maintenance needs that WSDOT staff identified,” said Prestrud, who has worked in transportation for more than thirty years, including serving as WSDOT's planning manager for King and Snohomish counties.
Prestrud said the Washington legislature also bears responsibility.
“Despite all the evidence that highway preservation and maintenance were severely underfunded, the budgets that made it through the legislature always kicked that can down the road,” said Prestrud.
“A close look at the budget would show the legislature chose to spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on peripheral and non-highways programs, including transit subsidies.”
Critics of the automatic annual gas tax hike say Washington policymakers are ensuring voters will continually pay more but not giving voters any accountability or opportunity for public debate about it.
And as Washington gas taxes continue climbing, with drivers paying $5.19 on average per gallon as of Monday and $5.58 in King County according to AAA, more drivers are choosing to fill up at tribal gas stations or stations in the neighboring states of Idaho and Oregon to save money.
Average price for gas in Oregon on Monday was $4.72 a gallon, while in Idaho the average price was $4.11 per gallon.
“There’s a school district in Eastern Washington that’s fueling up their school buses in Idaho because they’re close and it’s cheaper, so people will go where they can find cheaper gas,” said Pishue.
He noted Washingtonians who are near tribal fuel stations are taking advantage of that as well.
“And then those taxes don’t go to the state,” he said.
Tribal stations are exempt from Washington state fuel taxes and the state's CCA tax, allowing them to pass savings on to customers. Tribal stations regularly offer fuel at 75 cents less per gallon than non-tribal stations in Washington.
Pishue noted that every time gas prices go up, and the price of transporting goods and services increases, consumers ultimately pay for it with just about every purchase.
“If you’re trucking goods across the country, or you’re a local plumbing company or electrician where you’ve got vans out all across Puget Sound to serve your customers, when you’re paying more for fuel, it ends up meaning higher services costs to you and me,” Pishue said.
