Precedent

A worrisome development here in Washington. Two of our 29 tribes have successfully won a court case that would allow them to drop the state's gas tax. In one case, the tribe just imposed their own tax, but what if a tribe sets up a gas station on the freeway minus the gas tax. Estimates are that Washington could lose 100 million in funding.

I am rather annoyed that a small group could hold the state hostage. Everyone uses the highways and undercutting prices would be incredibly damaging to our infrastructure. In November we passed a nine cent gas tax--amazingly--and a lot of people credit the passage to Hurricane Katrina, which showed everyone the incredible need to have a sound infrastructure.

Gov. Gregoire is working a compromise where the tribe would get a large percent of the tax collected on their land and the state the rest. It's not a bad plan as it allows the tribe to collect money but they don't have to drop their prices to undercut the state.