Comments on: Governor Plans Partial Veto of SB 5433

By: Special Guest Post: Tunnel Digest | hugeasscity

Special Guest Post: Tunnel Digest | hugeasscity — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:21:43 +0000

[...] The State hasn’t yet followed through on the promise to help the City and County raise funds for their projects. The MVET authorization for transit ($190 million), and stimulus money for streets ($80 million), didn’t happen. [...]

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:20:48 +0000

[Rossi] proposed raiding ST’s money to fund the 520 bridge.

Around here, we call that the “Chopp Plan”.

By: Climate Change Doublethink | hugeasscity

Climate Change Doublethink | hugeasscity — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:41:06 +0000

[...] As commenter Ellery notes, Gregoire’s recent veto of the transit provision in SB5433 is right in line with all of the [...]

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:45:36 +0000

Check out the IRS’ sales tax deduction calculator to see about how much sales tax you pay annually. Increased license plate fees wouldn’t cover it for a month.

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:33:08 +0000

Another $20 a year for owning a car is a laugh. It should be $200. Our gas guzzler tax is badly outdated so hardly any cars are hit by it, and we charge the same sales tax on cars as clothes–in Norway or Finland sales tax on cars is 40%! That’s the direction we should be moving in. What do you pay for parking? That should be $200/mo. Have you looked at the IRS’ table on how much sales tax you can deduct by income level? It gets well into the thousands of dollars annually (for low income folks like me it’s about $550). I’d be happy to raise the gas tax instead (preferably in addition), but that’ll happen in WA when hell freezes over. All the items you buy in a year that are subject to sales tax don’t add up to the costs and damage done by buying/owning a car in the first place.

Also, if you follow the logic above, you’d probably oppose income taxes because the less you choose to earn, the less you have to pay in taxes.

By: geekgirl

geekgirl — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:38:30 +0000

No, no, you’re missing my point. Maybe I didn’t explain it well. It’s the all or nothing nature of it that bugs me. If I buy less stuff, reuse more, and realize that I really just don’t need that particular dohicky I’ll pay less sales tax. I can cut back and reduce the share of society’s resources I consume, and I feel rewarded by not having to contribute as much via taxes. This works for sales tax, gas taxes, vehicle miles traveled etc. But a high car tabs tax/fee just for having a car no matter how much I use it just feels unfair.

The other really petty reason I would be annoyed by a high car tabs tax is that I initially registered my car in November. Which means I always renew them in November and I don’t really like the idea of having to shell out a lot of money for that in a month when I already have a ton of Christmas expenses. I told you it was petty! :)

By: Mr Bradford (Brian)

Mr Bradford (Brian) — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:12:32 +0000

Boy, such short-term memories ya’ll have…

That 20.00 fee (actually with voter approval can be up to 100.00) can partially be attributed to a suggestion made at TCC’s Lobby Day a couple of years ago.

The idea was for it to be for transportation uses, both roads and transit. There’s nothing that says it has to be county-wide. They can levy the fee at the county level, it only requires the formation of a transportation benefit area. No, not PTBA, but a new category that was formed with the legislation.

There can be multiple transportation benefit areas in each county.

The Governor was correct in vetoing the 20.00 proposal, as it would have created potential conflict with the current law.

I wonder if too many of the lobbyists are from Evergreen, having taken Basketry and Non-toxic Intaglio printing more than once each.

Either that, or the UW is cranking out butcher paper unsuitable for kitty litter box wrap.

Brian Bradford
Olympia, WA

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:40:38 +0000

Well whomever wins the King County Executive race this fall will be seen as a possible Governor candidate from the moment they win election.

I do think Rep. Inslee is very likely a candidate for Governor in 2012, even if Gregiore decides to run for a third term. Rob McKenna is almost certainly running and he is likely to beat anyone except Inslee.

Another future possibility would be Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark. I’m not sure of his views on transit, but I like what I’ve seen of him on other issues. But I suspect he’d run for Congress before he’d run for Governor.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:18:40 +0000

Having grown up in Olympia I think there is some truth to the Governor not really understanding urban issues due to the myopia of primarily living and working in Olympia for the past few decades.

Transit in Olympia is primarily for people without cars and Evergreen State College students. Most state workers drive to work and most locals feel the solution to the problems of downtown Olympia is to make it even more auto-oriented.

When I try to give a vision of Olympia based on Kirkland, Ballard, or even Bremerton the locals look at me as if I’m spouting crazy talk. The only thing they can see to “fix” downtown is to turn it into a suburban strip mall.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:05:07 +0000

Well, that was a different bill…

By: Metro Audit Finds $105m in Reserves; Gov Explains Veto - Seattle Transit Blog

Metro Audit Finds $105m in Reserves; Gov Explains Veto - Seattle Transit Blog — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:53:07 +0000

[...] Finds $105m in Reserves; Gov Explains Veto by John Jensen Hot on the heels of the Governor’s controversial veto of one of Metro’s potential funding sources, there’s word that early auditing of Metro [...]

By: Metro Audit Finds $105m in Reserves; Gov Explains Veto - Seattle Transit Blog

Metro Audit Finds $105m in Reserves; Gov Explains Veto - Seattle Transit Blog — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:53:07 +0000

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:19:05 +0000

Maybe Capitol Hill needs to be the capital after all.

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:15:07 +0000

He’s mostly horrible. He yukked it up at one of those teabag rallies. I’d love to recall Gregoire at this point, but we’d have to oust him first, like Kucinich’s effort to impeach Cheney first.

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:11:18 +0000

By that logic, cutting or ending the sales tax should be a higher priority. I choose not to own a car. I can’t choose not to buy anything in WA as long as I live here.

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:10:03 +0000

Wow, that last argument is shockingly poor. First of all, Gutless Gregoire is from Auburn, a suburb of Seattle. Second of all, Seattle is by far the biggest city in the state, generating much more than its share of the state’s economic activity and tax revenue. Seattle’s well-being should concern all lawmakers no matter where they have or haven’t lived. Look at congressional or legislative district maps–the vast majority of Washingtonians live around Puget Sound. This is an urban/suburban state. She’s representing Doc Hastings? Third of all, Governor Gutless is constantly claiming to be an environmental champion. And a champion for working families. She’s sold out both this year (Metro imposing three regressive fare increases in three years–what a win for transit, the environment, and the poor). Had I known a year ago what she was going to do in 2009, I would never have busted my ass to reelect her. I will not support her for public office again. And I’m a Democratic PCO.

By: geekgirl

geekgirl — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:03:11 +0000

I think car tabs are unpopular because they’re regressive and they don’t account for usage. I love transit; I go weeks without using my car, but transit isn’t to the point where I can just give up the car and get to some of the places I need to go. But car tabs cost me just as much as the guy who drives 30 miles to work every day. It just doesn’t seem very fair. If you don’t like paying a gas tax or a vehicle miles tax, you can drive less. There’s no recourse for the tab tax, except for the pretty drastic action of not having a car. Now I support 5433 because $20 just isn’t that much money in the scheme of things, but significantly larger amounts would gall me.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t live in Washington in 1998 (and I wasn’t old enough to vote, regardless!) so I can’t say how I would have voted on I-695. Seems we lost a lot of good things because of that, but in an ideal world I’d choose a different way to fund transit.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:19:44 +0000

So, deluge of communiques to Gregoire to save pro-transit provisions then? Perhaps remind her that the bill was going to be very anti-transit and basically kill East Link until this blog and others reported on it and the mainstream media picked up on it and Olympia raced to make it more pro-transit?

By: Cascadian

Cascadian — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:19:22 +0000

Jay Inslee.

If the pool of potential governors consists of Senators (maybe, though it’s arguably a step down), members of Congress, statewide elected officials, and executives of one of the major urban counties, he’s really the only one who both has possible desire, a shot at winning, and is also pretty good on transit issues.

By: Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:23:41 +0000

I wouldn’t say he is pro-transit, but he was pro-transit in the 90s when he was state house transportation committee chair.