WA transportation budgets released. Here’s what lawmakers want to fund

Washington’s maintenance and preservation needs were top of mind when state lawmakers built the supplemental transportation budget proposals that were released earlier this week.

The beleaguered Fairfax Bridge is also getting attention from the two legislative chambers.

Republican ranking members joined the transportation committees’ Democratic chairs in rolling out the bills, contrasting with the more contested supplemental operating budget pitches unveiled over the weekend that attracted fierce Republican opposition.

Gov. Bob Ferguson has emphasized the urgency of keeping up with Washington’s infrastructure. Ahead of the start of the 2026 session, he posted a video to social media pressing the importance of preserving the state’s aging bridges.

“We need to invest more as a state of Washington, and that’s what we do in this next legislative session,” he said in the video.

The Senate’s supplemental transportation budget would invest an additional $1.7 billion over six years into the state’s getting-older-fast infrastructure. Meanwhile, the House’s would add $335 million this biennium plus $435 million in 2027-29; the House didn’t account for additional maintenance and preservation funds beyond that time.

In Ferguson’s proposed supplemental transportation budget released in December, $2.1 billion was dedicated to preservation and maintenance.

A notable piece in the House and Senate proposals: funding for the more than century-old Carbon River Fairfax Bridge, which was closed permanently last April because of safety concerns and deterioration.

Rep. Jake Fey, a Tacoma Democrat and chair of the House Transportation Committee, said in a call that the lower chamber’s proposal puts $12 million in this biennium to continue analysis of the bridge.

The Senate would also include money for Fairfax, noted Sen. Curtis King, a Yakima Republican and Senate Transportation Committee ranking member.

“We do fund over three biennia the Fairfax Bridge … along with providing them some money for their routes, alternate routes, and for their emergency support,” he said during a Feb. 23 news conference.

That chamber’s proposal would provide $3 million total through 2029.

According to the legislation, $1.5 million would be provided in the 2025-27 biennium to help offer “temporary access and mobility solutions, Fairfax emergency management and operations support, and planning and design for secondary egress from Fairfax.” Another $1.5 million would go toward the same in the following biennium.

The News Tribune reported last month that the state’s transportation department has estimated that building a new bridge would cost $160 million and take roughly six years. Another option would remove the existing span and not erect a replacement, which would take about three years and carry a $70 million to $80 million price tag.

Although transportation budget writers intend to eventually make good on the governor’s wish to buy three more hybrid electric ferries, they did not include his $1 billion borrowing request to cover the costs, the Washington State Standard reported.

Fey said lawmakers will work in the interim on strategizing how to deal with the ferry system’s vessel and terminal needs, which he called “legitimate.”

“We’re not going to try to make those decisions this year or commit to three more ferries when it would put us in a pinch for everything else we spend on transportation,” he said in a call.

Ferguson’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the supplemental transportation budget proposals.

Sen. Marko Liias, an Edmonds Democrat who chairs the upper chamber’s transportation committee, told reporters Feb. 23 that the Washington State Patrol will see significant investments to help with staffing.

He also said the $1.7 billion in added preservation spending could introduce up to 34,000 new jobs across the state, helping to fix and construct infrastructure.

“How do we pay for it?” Liias asked rhetorically. “No new taxes this year, but we are leveraging the increases we passed last year with a bond proposal, $1.1 billion to unlock the preservation investments we would like to make across the next six years.”

The House would not lean on more bonds and would instead use existing bond capacity, Fey said in a news release.

Fey noted some challenges that budget writers faced, like declining revenue from the gas tax as fuel consumption decreases. He told McClatchy that the Senate’s idea would include a $1 fee increase (which would go toward eventually getting a mobile driver’s license program up and running in Washington), but that the House’s would not.

Fey added that his chamber continued funding the Puget Sound Gateway project that dates back to 2015; the project was designed to fill missing links in the state’s freight and highway network. Lawmakers this session were challenged with increased costs and greater needs, he said — but they wanted to “stay the course” with existing works in progress.

“Because you don’t have credibility around here if you make promises you don’t keep,” Fey said.

This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 5:15 AM.

Simone Carter

The Olympian

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