The House passed its version of the transportation budget this afternoon, but not before the representatives amended the proposal to match the Senate’s plan. The budget spells out how $8.9 billion will be spent in the next two years on things like road construction, the State Patrol and the ferry system.

“Sometimes you pass budgets in this body that are about tightening your belt,” said Rep. Mike Armstrong, who co-wrote the budget. “It is a healthy process when you can have those open, bipartisan dialogs.”

“The one thing I learned through the process is that a bipartisan budget means you have to compromise a little bit more,” said Rep. Marko Liias. He said that he learned a lot about what its like for people who live in a rural community, like the one Armstrong represents.  ”This budget really does represent the highest interest of one Washington.”

Rep. Mark Hargrove thanked his budget teammates for helping him through the process. He said he learned a lot. Even though they had to spend some late nights, missing dinners and receptions, he still managed to gain weight, he said.

Rep. Jan Angel said that this is the first budget that she feels comfortable voting for.

“Our infrastructure is crumbling,” said Rep. Jason Overstreet. He said it did not like the fact that the state was continuing to put money into software programs and planning to begin building a ferry boat, for which there is only enough money to pay for half of it.

The transportation budget passed 89-6.

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Transportation, education and the future of the GET program:

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The House released its proposal for the 2011-2013 transportation budget Monday. Much of the $8.9 billion budget will go to operations and continuing projects that the state committed to several years ago. There are almost no new projects included in the proposal.

“This budget is about connecting Washington,” said Rep. Judy Clibborn, chair of the House Transportation Committee. “It is absolutely critical to the state’s economic development.” She said that budget’s $4.9 billion capital construction plan will help sustain or create 43,000 jobs.

“I would say it’s a no frill, tighten your belt budget,” said Rep. Mike Armstrong, the committee’s ranking minority member. He said he was pleased to have been included on the bipartisan effort.  ”This is a sustainable budget. It in not something we are necessarily thrilled about.”

Within the proposal, $1.1 billion would help preserve and maintain the state’s highway system. $402 million would be invested in passenger rail, and ferry terminal and vessel projects would get $237 million.

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The Senate is now debating whether to concur with House amendments to the transportation budget.

Sen. Mike Carrell: “I will be voting against it for the same reason I did before,” he said — that Lakewood will be blocked off by rail. “It is a safety problem,” he said, because trains will block access to I-5 “dozens of times a day.”

Sen. Chris Marr: “Unless you have a plan, unless you agree and have consensus,” he said, then your regional project will not move forward. “I will tell you, if we’re talking about 520 or the Columbia Crossing that we will not be able to compete for federal funding … unless we have these kinds of discussions internally,” he said. He said the budget presents real solutions for some of those issues.

Sen. Joe Zarelli said the tolling issue — particularly at Columbia Crossing — should be reconsidered. He said southwest Washington should not be responsible for paying for the I-5 replacement bridge on its own via tolling, since people throughout Washington, Oregon and California depend on the highway for freight and travel.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen said the project at Columbia Crossing is among the most important federal transportation projects — but there has to be a local match, and that means tolling. “We cannot depend completely on tolls. The Federal government needs to be a partner, Oregon needs to be a partner,” and so does Washington, she said. She said the Lakewood rail issue is a SoundTransit decision. “I’m not about to fix (SoundTransit’s) problems,” she said.

Update: The Senate concurred with the House amendments and passed the budget 37-11.

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The House is debating the supplemental transportation budget. Find it here.

Rep. Judy Clibborn: “We have at least 3,000 new jobs in the supplemental budget. Good, family wage jobs,” she said. She said the budget includes $600 million for rail. “This is a good news budget in a bad economy and I can’t commend it to you more.”

Rep. Dan Roach: “I will be voting yes today. I think one of the good things again is that the bidding climate is very good for us,” he said. “I encourage people go to through line by line … at the end of the day, I think it’s an alright budget.”

Rep. Christine Rolfes: “We have some money in her to design our final, big (ferry) boat,” she said, and she’s thankful for that.

Rep. Mike Armstrong: “It is a good, solid, stable budget. It’s not much excitement, here,” he said. He said he’ll be voting yes.

Rep. Marko Liias: “This budget represents a lot of great work for the people of Washington,” he said.

The budget passed 78 to 18.

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Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen opened the transportation budget unveiling by saying the transportation budget isn’t about Republicans and Democrats. Sen. Dan Swecker spoke next, thanking Haugen for her bipartisanship.

“The process has always been open and fair and I want to thank her for that,” he said. “We just completed the largest construction season in Washington state history,” he said, and this budget will mean “staying on course.” Of the 391 projects funded since the “Nickel tax” in 2003, 241 have been completed, 54 are under construction and 21 will be advertised for construction in the next six months, he said.

Swecker said the 16-year plan will be about $1 billion short due to increased costs and decreased tax revenues.

Sen. Chris Marr said the average project is coming in about 17 percent under budget, which means more projects will be able to be built over time. He also said megaprojects without regional consensus will have a difficult time getting additional federal funding.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen said this budget doesn’t have any new projects on it. She said it’s “truly a supplemental budget.” As for whether a gas tax will be considered next biennium, she said “everything is on the table.”

Sen. Dan Swecker, when asked about the federal stimulus, said he’s in favor of it. “When those calls went out for stimulus funds, we were ready,” he said. “They go into — directly — into jobs. That is exactly what the stimulus should do … while I may quibble about stimulus projects in other areas,” he said, he’s a fan of the transportation stimulus.

Haugen said most of the transportation stimulus projects were preservation jobs — she said those projects often aren’t the most popular.

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Gov. Chris Gregoire signed the $7.5 billion transportation budget — the largest two-year transportation budget in state history — today.

Read all about our it here and here.

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Today at 2 p.m., Gov. Chris Gregoire will be in Seattle signing the bill to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Tomorrow, she’ll be in Tacoma to sign the 2009-2011 transportation budget.

That budget is the largest ever transportation package in Washington’s history. Lawmakers estimate it will “support or create” nearly 50,000 jobs.

She’ll sign the bill — along with a bill to reduce pollution in construction — at 1:30 p.m. at the Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.

Want more information about the transportation budget? Here’s our previous coverage.

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Fresh off the operating budget, the Senate is debating the transportation budget.

Sen. Mike Hewitt said he’s voting for it, though he does have a few problems with it. “It’s a fairly good budget,” he said.

Sen. Dan Swecker kept it short: “Good bill (something about biofuel), short speech, vote yes.”

The Senate passed the budget.

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Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who presides over the Senate, just delivered his ruling of whether allowing the Transportation Commission to set tolls constitutes a tax under I-960.

Here’s what he had to say: “The test is whether there’s a nexus between the charge to be paid and where the proceeds will be spent … the language from I-960 is far from a model of clarity,” he said. Speaking on further confusion, he said “The president need not decide this question, however, as ambiguities within an initiative are a matter of a court of law.”

He turned down the challenge, so it will not require a two-thirds vote. But, as you can see above, he said the language in I-960 will need to be clarified in court.

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