This bill creates a new statewide road usage charge system and amends multiple vehicle registration and treasury statutes. It establishes both a voluntary and a mandatory per-mile road usage charge administered by the Department of Licensing, sets an initial rate of 2.6 cents per mile with automatic adjustment linked to changes in the motor vehicle fuel tax, designates proceeds as motor vehicle license fees to be deposited in a newly created road usage charge highway account (Sec. 23), and creates a separate road usage assessment equal to 10% of total road usage fees for mandatory-program vehicles with proceeds deposited in a road usage assessment account (Sec. 24). The assessment is collected at the same time as the road usage fee and is explicitly not a motor vehicle license fee. The bill also waives certain electric and hybrid vehicle registration and transportation electrification fees for vehicles enrolled in the voluntary program for the prior 12 months and caps the voluntary-program EV/hybrid fee so it cannot exceed the combined amounts that would otherwise have been due. The act changes registration and title procedures and creates operational rules: it phases in voluntary and mandatory enrollment by vehicle type and fuel economy over 2027–2035, requires odometer or periodic mileage reporting for enrolled vehicles (including a standard 200-mile annual deduction and a fuel-tax-based fee credit for each assessment period), authorizes automated reporting and certification of private service providers (customer fees not borne by the department), and requires payment of road usage fees and assessments at renewal and in certain report-of-sale situations. The bill lists specific exemptions (public transit systems, certain nonprofit and tribal transportation providers, state and local construction/maintenance vehicles, public firefighting equipment, and others), directs the Department to conduct outreach and semiannual reporting, requires studies and task force work on tribal applicability, enforcement options, vehicle impacts, and off-road funding with specified report deadlines, and instructs the legislature to address transportation network company driver impacts by July 1, 2027. The bill also adds privacy and data-protection limits for personally identifying information and location data collected under the road usage programs, creates or amends a range of RCWs to implement the new chapter in Title 46, and reenacts and amends state treasury rules by establishing a treasury income account for investment earnings with monthly distribution rules and proportional earnings allocations to many state accounts (including the two new road usage accounts). Money in the new road usage accounts may be spent only after appropriation and for specified purposes (highway preservation and maintenance from the highway account; multimodal purposes from the assessment account). Several referenced sections and specific implementation details—such as the full text of some amendments, the detailed methodologies for fee credits and exemptions, and the exact new chapter numbering—are not included in the extracted material and therefore are uncertain from these excerpts.

If enacted, the law creates both a voluntary and a phased-in mandatory per-mile road usage charge that initially charges 2.6 cents per mile and automatically adjusts with changes to the motor fuel tax. Drivers of electric and hybrid vehicles will be the first affected (voluntary enrollment starting July 1, 2027; mandatory enrollment for EVs starting July 1, 2029), with progressively higher-mileage-efficiency internal combustion vehicles added through 2035; owners in the mandatory program also pay a separate 10% assessment. Vehicle owners who participate must report odometer miles (automated third-party options are allowed but customers pay those vendors), and the Department of Licensing plus county auditors and agents must collect the fees at registration renewal, apply a fuel-tax credit and a 200-mile annual deduction, and follow exemptions for public transit, public works, firefighting equipment, and certain tribal and nonprofit providers. The money will be treated as motor vehicle license fee proceeds for highway preservation and maintenance and deposited in a new "road usage charge highway account," while the 10% assessment goes to a separate "road usage assessment account" strictly for multimodal purposes (rail, bicycle, pedestrian, public transit). State agencies take on new administrative roles (rulemaking, outreach, enforcement task force, semiannual reporting) and will receive and distribute funds (state treasurer and auditor get administrative expense payments), while drivers likely to see the biggest cost change are EV, hybrid, and high-mpg vehicle owners who will move from flat registration electrification fees toward per-mile charges; details remain unclear on specific credits, exemptions, and exact adjustment calculations because several implementing sections and precise definitions are not included in the provided text.