It looks like the idea of imposing a mileage tax on Washington drivers is dead for this year.

The Legislature enacting a Road User Charge or mileage tax appeared to be a real possibility going into the 2023 legislative session. The chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Representative Jake Fey, introduced a bill (HB 1832) that proposed a voluntary Road User Charge that would have initially applied to electric vehicle owners before becoming mandatory in 2030 for owners of all automobiles registered in Washington State. That bill generated considerable public comment at the Committee hearing as well as questions and concerns about the actual mechanism for implementation.

The bill didn’t move out of committee, but that left open the possibility of some type of mileage tax being imposed through the Legislature's budget process. When House Democrats released their proposed transportation budget on Monday it did not include any type of mileage tax nor did it assume future revenues such a tax would generate. It did, however, include a line-item that funds $150,000 for further study of the concept. This is an indication Democrats plan to bring up the idea in a future legislative session, but the idea appears to be dead for 2023.