Governor ‘extremely disappointed’ by legislative failure
Mar 13, 2014, 9:21 AM | Updated: 11:43 am
The state Legislature will adjourn sometime Thursday without passing a new transportation budget.
Governor Jay Inslee told TVW Thursday morning he’s “extremely disappointed.”
“We have declining roads and bridges, we’re going to have emergent safety issues, we’re going to be losing ferry service, very significant. In King County, 80,000 will be affected by losing bus service.”
Both the House and Senate have considered proposals to fund multi-billion dollar transportation budgets, in part, with an 11.5 cent a gallon increase in the state gasoline tax.
Inslee made no mention of calling for a special session to deal with transportation.
“Next year, we’ll have a very difficult challenge for the Legislature to fully fund or take the next big step in funding our educational system. At the same time, we have these unfunded issues in our roads and bridges and bus services,” Inslee said.
The governor said he’s excited to sign legislation improving mental health care coverage and a bill to allow undocumented youth to become eligible for state financial aid at public colleges and universities.
Gov. Inslee has a bill signing session scheduled in Olympia for Thursday afternoon.
