Submitted by Cheryl Jayne.
I recently heard that the federal government has granted millions to the rapid transit project in our area. We are currently paying huge RTA taxes on our car tabs. At this time, with the pandemic stressing our finances, why are we still paying these exorbitant prices? With this windfall to the project, it would behoove the state to drop these RTA taxes.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
It would also behoove the state to honor the will of the voters, namely the $30 car tabs.
Ahhh, but remember that our governor stated he would keep the funds collected in a safe account until the State Supreme Court rules on that decision. Wondering when that will be and is there an accounting of how much has already been “safely” collected?
They ruled against the voter/taxpayer /tab payer last fall. Tabs will continue to be a problem moving forward. And Sound Transit is $12 billion short already on this venture into waste. So, they will not be cutting fees.
When Pierce Transit “needs” $185 million to update a single bus line from Spanaway to Tacoma, Sound Transit looks excellent.
I can’t recall a time while living in this state where a Governor has ever honored the will of the voters. We voted against that rapid transit train line, and the response was…’Too bad. We’re going to build it anyway. We voted against being required to build a new arena for pro ball sports teams, and were told…’Too bad, we’re going to do it anyway.’ We voted against that tunnel, and were told, ‘Too bad, we’re going to do it anyway.’
Sadly this will never happen. Once government has their hand on your wallet they won’t let go of it. Even when the need disappears they’ll find something else to spend it on. Saw this first hand in Lakewood while on the City Council. The city manager “found” over $1M laying around and convinced Council to spend it all on “worthy” projects, one of which was to build a brand new park grounds keeping equipment garage to the tune of $650,000. Turns out that shortly thereafter the City took over Fort Steilacoom Park which already had a large grounds keeping garage perfect for that purpose. Yet there were many on Council who were hell bent on spending the $650,000 on that already existing structure. Not a penny of that “found” money was returned to the taxpayer for them to use on their “worthy” projects. The telephone excise tax implemented during the Spanish-American War (1898) was only terminated in 2006 and that only after the government was taken to court! So until the public holds a gun to the head of government taxes will continue to multiply, expand and stretch into eternity.
If you think $30 is bad, check out how much you would have to pay for an all electric car. The philosophy is since you don’t pay gasoline taxes, you would have to make up in car tags for that lack. However, as a senior citizen I never had much contribution for gasoline taxes. My last car, that I had for 12 years had only 31,000 miles. I obtained the car not only for the convenience of not going to the gas station, but also for the safety features. I believe there needs to be a sliding scale for people that do not drive that much and wear out the roads. Also, please note there are no charging stations on the Olympic Peninsula.
To see how government spends money just look at the condition of streets in Tacoma. The last review almost three year ago found that over 60% of the surface streets were below standard.
Look in front of your home and the streets you drive to verify this fact. Where has the money gone that is intended to be allocated to bring these streets up to usable standard? Driving on below standard streets damages vehicles, other users, bikes, and pedestrians are also taking risks. The cost of the damage caused by substandard streets doesn’t seem to be considered at bureaucrats spend taxpayer money as they choose.