The in basket: Jim DeLorm e-mailed to say “I renewed the license on my wife’s car, a 1992 Toyota Corolla four-door sedan. Of all things, they charged me $10 for GWT/VEH WT. What kind of scam has the state or county come up with now to suck up our hard earned money? Gross vehicle weight on a passenger car??? It’s bad enough,” he said, “when they force you to do it with a pickup when a lot of people never haul anything, but to do it with a car is a real scam. Anything for a buck.”
The in basket: Jim DeLorm e-mailed to say “I renewed the license on
my wife’s car, a 1992 Toyota Corolla four-door sedan. Of all
things, they charged me $10 for GWT/VEH WT. What kind of scam has
the state or county come up with now to suck up our hard earned
money? Gross vehicle weight on a passenger car??? (He actually used
seven ? marks, but I’m trying to save space).
It’s bad enough,” he said, “when they force you to do it with a
pickup when a lot of people never haul anything, but to do it with
a car is a real scam. Anything for a buck.”
The out basket: It’s the state that came up with it, in the 2005
Legislature. Brad Benfield of the state Department of Licensing
calls it “a new weight-based vehicle fee as part of an overall
transportation plan to fund 274 critical transportation projects
over a 16-year period.” It was passed along with the 9.5 cent
increase in the gas tax that got a lot more publicity.
People have been paying the weight fee since last January. It’s an
extra $10 on top of the base $30 for a small car like the ’92
Corolla, and goes up in increments of $10 for vehicles of 4,001 to
6,000 pound ($20) and for those 6,001 to 8,000 pounds ($30).
For all motor homes, regardless of actual weight, it adds $75.
The rationale is that all vehicles create some wear and tear on the
roadways, and it increases with weight.
To see what the money is being spent on go online to
www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Funding/2005/. The big one here is the
Hood Canal Bridge east half replacement .
Jim, what makes more sense the actual weight of your car doing damage to the road or the gradual depreciation of the worth of your car. So we did away with excise tax on your car every year. Went to a flat $30 fee which was allowing individuals with huge motor homes that we all know do more damage then a little Toyota Corrala to pay the same rate. So the best way to come up with a user tax to maintain roads was the gross weight fee. I guess they could go to a net weight fee and make everyone have their car weighed every three years just like having your smog controls checked. Then the moving company’s would make a fortune charging to weigh your car.
Look I’m not a fan of more taxes but if we have to register our vehicles every year $43 a year for tabs isn’t that bad. However, Christine Rolfes, our new representative from the Bainbridge Island who now sits on the Transportation Committee, those campaign promises are due! Performance Audits on where our taxs dollars are being spent to repair roads in KITSAP County in a must.