Opinion ID: 2455414
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Constitution Prohibits the Use of MVF to Fund Public Transportation

Text: ¶ 41 The Washington Constitution provides that all fees collected as license fees for motor vehicles and all excise taxes collected . . . on the sale, distribution or use of motor vehicle fuel and all other state revenue intended to be used for highway purposes, shall be paid into the state treasury and placed in a special fund to be used exclusively for highway purposes. WASH. CONST. art. II, § 40 (emphasis added). This same provision then goes on to explain the term highway purposes, expressly enumerating specific authorized types of expenditures. Id. Though the provision authorizes the use of the MVF to fund the operation of ferries (a part of the Washington highway system), it does not recognize expenditures for bus, train, light rail, or any other type of public transportation. Applying the traditional interpretive canons, the Washington Constitution prohibits the use of money from the MVF to fund public transportationincluding light rail. Under the statutory canon expressio unius est exclusio alterius, the express inclusion in a statute of situations in which it applies implies that other situations are intentionally omitted. In re Det. of Strand, 167 Wash.2d 180, 190, 217 P.3d 1159 (2009).