It slipped my notice when it happened last night, but kudos to state house Dems for amending SB 5457 to remove its odious super-majority requirement before passing it. But to the state senators who refused to concur… what the fuck?
In its current form, the bill would grant authority to King County—and King County alone—to levy a temporary $20 annual license fee on vehicles weighing 6,000 pounds or less, through 2014, in order to bridge the funding gap created by a recession-induced decline in sales tax revenue. The bill refers to this as a “congestion reduction charge,” because without the extra $26 million a year this fee would raise, Metro would be forced to substantially cut service, thus forcing more riders into their cars and onto the roads. You know… increasing congestion.
Remember, this bill has been narrowed in such a way that it only applies to King County. No car owner in any of the other 38 counties will pay the fee. Just us. That’s it. Yet the senate, including several key Democrats, insists on imposing a two-thirds super-majority requirement on the King County Council, a threshold that no local tax anywhere in the state has ever before had to meet. Ever.
Essentially, senators from outside of King County are telling voters here that we can’t be trusted with majority rule. Or something. Though as I’ve previously explained:
The real reason many legislators, Democrats and Republicans alike, don’t want King County to pass this tax is because they want to keep us transportation hungry in anticipation of putting a statewide transportation package on the ballot in 2012. Such a measure cannot possibly pass without huge margins in King County, support that might soften should we be allowed to tax ourselves to take care of our own needs. Or so the thinking goes.
So as this bill heads into conference, here’s my promise to Olympia: if this bill doesn’t pass—or it does pass, but only with the two-thirds provision put back in—I will work as hard as I can to undermine local support for any statewide transportation funding package that isn’t heavily weighted toward transit, regardless of its merits. And if that sounds petty and vindictive, well, you started it.
It’s neither petty nor vindictive. It’s the way things are supposed to work. So they want BillionaireTunnelPalooza 2012: WA State Welfare Edition? Fuck that.
@1 And, as such, couldn’t this be seen as a reaction against the reaction against the Tunnel of Love? Isn’t this the way WA politics have been stifling most political movement, not on a basis of “back-scratching” but of vindictiveness?
@2 Good point. Depends, of course.
Maybe what we need is a great conciliator to bring “both sides” together, have a skew framed debate, and give the special interests everything they want.
What we need is to become our own state and let the rest of the welfare queens enjoy what it’s like to be Idaho or Wyoming.
what @1 said.
If they want the Tunnel of Doom, they should fund it fully and put that up for the mandatory VOTE.
Haugen.
And I dont care about any of this. What I see being a problem is the fact that Republicans want to push for Photo ID in order to vote. If you dont own a car or have a license like I do, then you get a state ID which expires after 3-4 years. For the poor or eldery, this amounts to a 40$ voter fee every 4 years.
Oh and since this is for vehicles of 6,000 pounds or less, I guess this is going to include cyclists who dont own a car.
So I take it this means that King County currently does not have any authority whatsoever to levy this fee? Why shouldn’t the legislature be able to set the guidelines, whatever they are, when granting special permission?
We’re ignoring the reality that 90 percent of the wear and tear on roads is from vehicles that weigh more than 10,000 pounds.
They get a free ride, subsidized by the cyclists who already pay more in street and maintenance fees, property taxes, and sales taxes.
So this bill, if implemented, gives a pass to bloated SUVs?? What’s the state vehicle licensing fee structure with regard to vehicle weights, as opposed to book value? Why not implement a special tax of, say, $1000/yr for anything between, say, 6000 and 12000 lbs unless the vehicle is registered to a legitimate business?
Want to know what vehicles would generally fall in that weight range? Look here:
http://www.alphaleasing.com/businessaspe…
(Just poking the hornet’s nest. Sting away, ‘cuz I really didn’t do any deep thinking on this.)
@9
the truly contentious issue is the continued subversion of democracy through the 2/3rds provision. majority rule used to be an american principle.
@12 agreed. We need a Freedom From Corporations requirement that all tax exemptions be subject to a mandatory 2/3 vote of the people after an initial period of 2 years, with either a 2 year (corporate) or 4 year (personal) renewal period for any such exemption.
Want a pro-transit pro-bike pro-walk pro-density transpo package in 2012? Sign up to support our campaign at http://www.t4washington.com
@ 7/8
State law requires proof of identity in general (that’s why non-citizens are allowed to get drivers’ licenses here). You’re an idiot.
@11
Politicians all pretend that those 6,000+ lb. fatass trucks are driven by salt-of-the-earth small business owners. Roofers and cabinet makers and fishermen and shit, or so they imagine. Job creators. Not yuppies. Seriously. Can’t tax job creators, by god…
It’s sort of like how they pretended they believed that Joe the Plumber was going to ever earn over $200k as a plumber?
Metro had record revenue in 2009 and comparable revenue in 2010. Their problem is poor cost-control not a shortage of revenue. If Metro had hourly operating costs close to the state average they would save so much money service could be expanded rather than cut. Nor can it be argued the legislature has been unreceptive to Metro’s ongoing requests for funding. After MVET was revoked the legislature quickly authorized increases in the sales tax that were greater than the lost MVET, and they provided a special appropriation to support transit agencies until they were able to put the tax increases on the ballot. The legislature also exempts transit agencies from paying the state fuel tax, that saves Metro millions of dollars per year. The legislature’s generosity doesn’t end there. Two years ago the legislature allowed Metro to take a share of the property tax worth $40 million per year and didn’t even require a public vote. The State also doles out millions to Metro for various project through the Regional Mobility Grant program. What the legislature hasn’t done to help Metro is impose any kind of accountability. The millions of dollars the legislature throws at Metro each year have a way of disappearing into the County’s black box budget or going up in smoke as part of Metro’s ever rising operating costs. If the people whining about Metro service cuts took a look at Metro’s fat budget and sky-high operating costs they might understand why the legislature is reluctant to give Metro yet another blank check.
@16 a lot of my colleagues bike to work. they own cars, own houses, pay property tax, and they are subsidizing YOU.