Senate Republicans are putting the final touches on a multi-billion dollar transportation package and could make it public as early as Thursday.
Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, chairman of the Senate Transportation Commission, briefed his caucus on transportation issues Tuesday. He would not reveal if the focus was on details of the package. He would not say whether he’s planning a news conference Thursday.
Senate Democrats are expected to discuss transportation matters in their caucus meeting Wednesday.
Here’s a couple nuggets of what I’ve heard and what some civic and business leaders in Snohomish County have been told in recent days:
The package will be funded with a gas tax hike of between 11.5 cents and 14 cents a gallon rather than revenue from the cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions proposed by Gov. Jay Inslee.
And there’s talk that Democrats have agreed to delay action on enacting a low carbon fuel standard in exchange for Republicans supporting a greater sum of dollars for transit and allowing Sound Transit to ask voters to fund another round of expansion.
Stay tuned.
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