Opponents of the 9.5 cent per gallon hike in Washington's already steep gasoline tax were crowing last week about how easy it was to collect enough signatures to get a repeal measure on the November ballot. After little more than a month of work, tax foes had petitions bearing more than 425,000 names deposited at the secretary of state's office.
It's highly likely that voters, peeved by a barely-elected governor who broke a "no new taxes" campaign pledge and teamed with a heavy-handed majority in the Legislature to ram it through, will promptly roll it back this fall.
But we still need to build new roads and fix old ones. Seattle still needs a new viaduct. Spokane is still waiting for a north-south freeway. Bellevue demands a new Lake Washington bridge. Every corner of the state has pressing transportation needs.
And we have to pay for them somehow.
Gas taxes are necessary, but too high is simply that. They burden small business and heavily pinch daily commuters, many of whom have been forced to live far from their jobs because of high housing prices. We simply can't pay for it all at the pump.
It's time to revisit an old solution, albeit an unpopular one: the motor vehicle excise tax, the dreaded "car tax" that was (finally) killed by a series of earlier Tim Eyman initiatives. But do it right this time. Here's a modest proposal for a revived MVET.
* Make it fair. The price of a new, barely equipped family sedan is well over $20,000. Under the old MVET levy of 2.2 percent, that sticker price produced a Cadillac of a tax bill. Recognize reality and let owners of a car valued at $20,000 or less pay a flat yearly fee of $100 or less. Light trucks and delivery vehicles used strictly for business purposes also deserve a modest flat rate because business owners are already gouged by the state's onerous B&O tax.
* Make it progressive. Make the tax 1 or 1.5 percent for vehicles valued from $20,000 to $35,000. Jump it 2 percent (near the old rate) for luxury vehicles.
* Recognize fuel efficiency. Give alternative fuel, hybrid or high mileage traditional vehicles the flat rate to encourage conservation. Penalize gas-hogging vehicles by taxing them at a higher rate.
And finally, spend the money raised for its intended purpose - transportation. The old MVET grew into a $1 billion per year cash cow that legislators regularly raided to fund their pet projects.
Drivers will pay for pavement. They won't pay for pencil pushers.
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