I am NOT a tax policy wizard and am not headed to more substantive research soon. I will freely accept corrections or additions if anyone wants to offer them but here are some points to start with.
WA is is some ways a paradoxical state. We have relatively generous welfare, Medicaid and unemployment programs and we have one of the most regressive tax structures in the country. State tax revenues come, not necessarily in weighted order, from sales taxes, property taxes and B&O (business and organization?) taxes. We are fond of financing things like sports stadiums with extra sales taxes; we finance Medicaid partly with cigarette taxes.
We tax businesses, you say? Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Businesses are fond of whining like stuck pigs about B&O taxes, but many of the largest local companies seema magically to acquire massive exemptions from B&O taxes.
And then there are car tabs. Somehow historically a whole bunch of revenue streams started sucking off proceeds of car licensing. I do not know the full history of that, but when Initiative 695, organized by Tim Eyman came along demanding a limit of $30 / year on car licensing fees, WA tab fees were among the highest in the country. And lots and lots of municipalities and other jurisdictions all over the state were really dependent on this revenue.
Along comes a local watch salesman who objected and got the first of several anti-tax initatives going. I-695 was a voter initiative designed to cut the cost of car license fees to $30 /year. It passed overwhelmingly, with almost NO organized opposition. Some people in state government who should have been in a position to offer opposition just rolled over, fearing that if they did anything, their resistance would just inflame the populace and people would see the error of their ways after living under the resulting cuts for awhile.
I-695 was a little bit of a Christmas tree with some other provisions tacked on as well; those eventually got tossed by the courts. The state Lege wisely figured they should heed the voters about the $3- car tabs issue at first. Then in some areas other fees started getting tacked on.
Then the wiseasses in certain local government decided they should issue bonds based on the the new fees to expand public transit, bujild light rail, and hopefully keep grouchy visually impaired people llike me on buses, out of cars and not needing to share the road with the likes of Mr. Eyman and his SUV's. (There is of course some other typical big public project whining associated with the transit stuff just for extra blue-collar umph.) Then, this year, along comes the Watch Salesman with another "we really mean it about $30 car tabs" initiative, I 776 which again seems to be passing widely.
In case you cannot tell, I hope the outstanding bonds issue will again get I-776 thrown out by the courts, but recently I have been reflecting on the whole Tim Eyman phenomenon. His initiatives starting with I 695 have this HUGE ordinary voter appeal because license tabs are something everyone has to deal with, but everyone's wallets would be fatter if we just closed all the Niagara-falls sized leaks in the tax structure. Obivously a paradox for local activitists to get motivated about...!
DoreneC Seattle, WA
In a message dated 11/7/02 11:09:35 AM Pacific Standard Time, jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com writes:
> > It may or may not be better than an income tax.
>
> I guess that just about covers it then :-)
>
> > It would be better than using regressive taxes like
> > gas and sales to transfer funds from the working
> > class to projects that benefit the oligarchy in the state.
>
> Oh sure, roll back 695.
>
> /jordan
>
>
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