Gas Prices & After the Recess

Gas Prices & After the Recess

Gas Prices & After the Recess. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

If you live in Washington State you might want to fill up the car today since as of tomorrow you will pay an additional seven cents in gas taxes. The Washington state Legislature voted to approve the increase as part of the transportation package approved in the last session. They will go from 37.5 cents to 44.5 cents making Washington State the fourth-highest gas tax in the nation behind Hawaii, New York, and Pennsylvania. The tax will increase another 4.9 cents next year, moving Washington to the second-highest gas tax. The gas tax is the primary source of revenue to fund much-needed road projects, expand bus service, and maintain bridges.

Congress is heading out for the August recess, spending time in the districts to get an idea about what is really going on. Once back though there will still be plenty to do before the holiday break. Representative Dan Newhouse says water will be a big issue for him.

NEWHOUSE: We're going to continue working as hard as we can on some of the issues as relates to water and water availability, water storage. So that's something that I don't need to tell you people in the Fourth District, in fact all over the west are facing everyday in this historic drought that we're in. So that's probably top of the list as far as my focus is going to be.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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