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Home / Washington Business - February 2006 / Background: Does $30 Really Mean $30? |
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Background: Does $30 Really Mean $30? |
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Written On: February 2006 |
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Written By: by Charles Henry Thomas |
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As more people bought $100,000 motor homes and expensive SUVs, the sticker shock extended far beyond the dealer's showroom. Every year it walloped them when they went to the courthouse to buy their car tabs.
The Legislature recognized the growing discontent in 1998. When former-Gov. Gary Locke vetoed legislation reducing the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax, Republicans filed Referendum 49 and voters approved it. The idea was to start ratcheting down the MVET while maintaining a steady funding stream for transportation projects.
The state then was flush with money and sitting on $1 billion in reserves. Tim Eyman, father of I-695, captured the drivers’ uneasiness and argued that taxpayers ought to have that surplus money back. His contention gathered popular backing because people were feed up with paying $600 a year for a Ford Explorer's car tabs. Besides there seemed to be no end to the state’s booming economy, particularly in the Puget Sound area where the dot.com revolution was in full swing.
Eyman filed I-695. His group, Permanent Offense, gathered more than half-a-million signatures putting the initiative on the November 1999 ballot. He also quickly exploited the MVET’s other Achilles heel — money from the tax was being siphoned from roads to fund law enforcement, mass transit and emergency services. Eyman’s contention was that transparency in state and local government was lacking and the politicians could find the replacement money by shifting around current accounts.
Then Gov. Locke and opponents decided to fight the ballot measure head on with a coalition of unions, businesses, citizen groups and environmentalists rather than sponsor an alternative — a measure which would retain the MVET, but at a much lower rate.
Voters overwhelmingly passed the initiative, eliminated the 2.2 percent MVET which had its roots dating back to 1937, and established the $30 car tab. When the courts upheld I-695, the Legislature, at Locke’s urging, codified the court's rendering.
The initiative did not, however, repeal the sales tax motorists pay when they first purchase and register their vehicle and it did not eliminate the Regional Transit tax (Sound Transit) of .003 percent of the market value.
Then in 2003, along came Seattle's now defunct monorail project and voters in that city reinstated MVET which allowed the city to collect up to 1.4 percent of value for vehicles registered within the city limits to build the monorail from Ballard to West Seattle.
In 2005, Washington legislators, with the backing of Gov. Christine Gregoire, passed a bold transportation funding package. The increased funding followed on the heels of what was commonly called the "Nickel Package" passed by the Legislature in 2003. That legislation increased the gas tax by five cents a gallon.
The center piece in last year's funding scheme was a 9.5 percent gas tax increase phased in over four years. Petitioners led by KVI talk show hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson collected more than 400,000 signatures for I-912 in just over a month. Despite the strong spontaneous outpouring of signatures, I-912 failed. Some believe the rock slides on I-90 blocking the state's main east-west transportation artery and the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita highlighted the need for more infrastructure investment.
While voters last fall focused on the gas tax increase in I-912, Eyman started beating the drum to repeal the weight fees added to the 2005 legislation and paid by motorists when they license their cars and trucks. His war cry is, "Thirty bucks means thirty bucks!"
In January when the Legislature convened, Eyman filed the "Save Our $30 Tabs" initiative. Since this will be hotly debated, Washington Business is presenting both sides. Meanwhile, please go to the Department of Transportation's Web site at the link below to learn for yourself what projects are at stake.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/34E01CEF-06C7-42AE-
8C68-7C355739D5CC/0/NewFundingPackage2005.pdf
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