SPOKANE, Wash. — Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden sent a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee today asking to stop Washington’s proposal to tax fuel shipped to Idaho.
The letter has come on the same day Inslee is visiting Spokane and Airway Heights to discuss transportation funding, climate change and affordable housing.
The tax is part of a $16 billion spending proposal from Democratic state lawmakers that invests in transportation improvements in Washington state over the next 16 years. $2 billion of the total budget will come from the exported fuel tax and will raise Idaho gas prices by six cents a gallon, according to Little’s letter. The proposal would also tax fuel sent from Washington to Oregon and Alaska.
"During a time when inflation is soaring at historic levels, we ask you to step in and do what you can to stop these harmful proposals," Little wrote in the letter. "If these proposals reach your desk, we ask you to veto them. Now is not the time for our states to turn on each other with excise tax proposals that dampen our economy and increase costs for everyone."
While paying for proposals such as this might normally require a raise in personal taxes within the state, the transportation committee has made it clear funding will come from outside. They cited federal funding, a Climate Commitment Act passed last year, increased revenue streams in the form of driver’s license and license plate fees, and the out-of-state fuel tax.
Little asked Inslee to veto the proposal in his letter, as he said price increases would disproportionately hurt Idaho citizens.
While Inslee is in Spokane today, he will not be meeting with Little on this visit. However, Little said in his letter he welcomes a meeting with Inslee to discuss the impacts of the tax.