OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire called on the Legislature on Tuesday to pass a $3.6 billion transportation package, saying the proposal would create thousands of road-construction jobs across the state.

In her State of the State address, the Democratic governor said the 10-year plan would create about 5,500 jobs a year. To help pay for the package, she asked the Legislature to increase some fees, including adding a $100 fee to electric vehicles and passing a $1.50 fee on every barrel of oil produced in Washington.

“Our oil companies are getting all the profit and leaving us with the bill,” Gregoire told a joint session of the House and Senate. “We can do better.”

Republicans were skeptical, saying Gregoire’s suggested oil fee would translate into a tax increase on drivers.

“That fee is going to come directly to the pump, directly to the gallon of gas that every citizen has to use,” said House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis.

But he did not reject her overall proposal outright. “There are some fees we’re willing to look at,” DeBolt said, without providing specifics.

Gregoire also urged changes in education and a measure to legalize same-sex marriage. Her remarks came a day after legislators returned to the Capitol for the start of the 60-day session, in which they need to address a projected budget deficit of about $1 billion through June 2013.

She said passing a transportation package is necessary to improve the state’s crumbling infrastructure, and said the state faces a potential $1.6 billion shortfall over the next 10 years just to maintain highways.

“We can’t wait until roads, bridges and ferries are falling apart to fix them,” she said. “We can’t kick the can down the road and saddle our future generations with the repairs we failed to make.”

Gregoire’s proposal is modest compared to a recent report from a transportation task force she convened to examine the issue. The task force determined

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/ds62ba-8Okw/2017202485_stateofthestate11m.html