On Monday, the Washington Transportation Commission (WTC) unveiled a Transportation Revenue Proposal it has submitted to the Washington State Legislature. It included a recommendation that the state appropriate $1.5 billion to fully complete State Route 167.

"We encourage and support all efforts to move transportation investments and improvements forward," wrote the Commission in their December 31 letter to lawmakers. "While it is neither easy nor simple to get new revenue in these difficult economic times, we must push ahead."

To address our future needs and shrinking revenues, the WTC recommends a gas tax increase, a motor vehicle excise tax, a gross weight fee increase, and some efficiency and cost-saving measures as part of a 10-year, $7.670 billion transportation investment package. The proposal builds on the work started by the Connecting Washington Task Force which identified a constrained funding need of $21 billion for maintenance, operations, preservation and capital improvements statewide. Of the $21 billion, Connecting Washington targeted #10 billion for maintenance, preservation and operations and operations for transit, cities, counties and the state. An additional $11 billion funded capital improvements over the next 10 years.