HB1603 – Shifting funding obligations for non-highway transportation programs from the transportation budget to the general fund.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Barkis (R; 2nd District; Southern Pierce County, Yelm & Lacey) (Co-sponsor Rep. Stokesbary – R, Auburn)
Current status – Referred to Appropriations.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
The bill would shift funding obligations for non-highway transportation programs from the transportation budget to the general fund. Beginning July 2025, the general fund would be responsible for financing projects that correct fish barriers on public lands; Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades to transportation facilities; new buildings where primarily state transportation employees work; mobility and public transit-related grants, social services, and programs, such as regional mobility grants, rural mobility grants, vanpool grants, and any pilot or expired grants that are to be continued; programs designated as green or clean fuel programs, such as green transportation capital grants, the clean alternative fuel vehicle charging and refueling infrastructure program, and the clean alternative fuel car sharing program for underserved and low-income communities; programs that provide tax incentives for the purchase or lease of battery electric or alternative fuel vehicles, as well as for other equipment that supports vehicle conversions to alternative fuels; safe routes to schools grants; bicycle and pedestrian pathways that are not an integrated part of a highway project or are administered by any agency other than the department of transportation; capital and operation costs for intercity passenger rail service; assistance funding for freight rail programs; and stormwater facility upgrades and maintenance near highways where untreated runoff containing 6 CPPD and 6 CPPD quinone is killing significant amounts of salmon. It would allow any projects in the nickel, transportation partnership, and connecting Washington transportation packages to get additional appropriations from the general fund if the funding for them through the transportation appropriations act was insufficient to pay for their associated obligations .

The bill would establish a legislative work group to implement the transition. In particular, the bill would replace the annual transfers from the transportation multi-modal account of $2.5 million for rail capital improvements; $45 million for the regional mobility grant program; and $10 million for the rural mobility grant program with transfers from the general fund. It would stop providing the general fund with payments from the electric vehicle account in the transportation budget to cover the lost revenue from the tax exemptions for light and medium duty fuel cell plug-in electric vehicles. It would stop providing the general fund with payments from the multi-modal account in the transportation budget to cover the lost revenue from the sales and use tax exemptions for commercial clean alternative fuel vehicles (which are currently capped at $32.5 million), and for the the lost revenue from the tax exemptions for alternative fuel infrastructure (which are currently capped at $32.5 million).

The bill also declares the Legislature’s intent to fund commute trip reduction programs from the general fund, along with currently expired multi-modal pilot programs (if they’re ever renewed), such as the student ORCA card pilot program, the transit coordination grant program, and the green transportation capital grant program.