SB5068 – Dedicating gradually increasing amounts of the sales and use taxes on motor vehicles to transportation projects and reducing existing transportation project debt.
Prime Sponsor – Senator MacEwen (R; 35th District; Mason County)
Current status – Referred to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Comments –
See the Transportation section of the Topics index for several similar proposals this session.

Summary –
The bill would require the current use tax revenue and sales tax revenue from new and used retail sales of a vehicle, including private-party sales, to be diverted over time to a new transportation and maintenance account. (It would not include the tax on car rentals.) The bill would require that these funds be used for for “transportation projects, programs, and activities”, including reducing existing debt obligations for transportation projects and infrastructure. It would prohibit using them in any sort of new debt financing.

The bill would divert 10% of this revenue to the new fund starting in the 2025 fiscal year, and would increase the amount diverted by 10% in each subsequent year, diverting 100% of it beginning in 2034.