What are the chances you’ll actually see some relief from car-tab bills?
Feb 2, 2018, 12:12 PM
(File, MyNorthwest)
(File, MyNorthwest)
Republican state lawmakers are calling out Democrats for “ignoring” several bills related to Sound Transit and the measure that will pump billions more into the regional light rail project, including one to provide car-tab relief and not moving them out of committee.
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It’s not the first time we’ve heard of many of these bills, most of which have already had hearings in the Senate Transportation Committee. But with Democrats now in control, Republicans are struggling to get their wishlist through.
Senator Steve O’Ban says his constituents in Pierce County need relief from car tabs that jumped by hundreds of dollars in some cases.
“I’ve got people who tell me they’ve voted for ST3 and they deeply regret it, they didn’t understand the material from Sound Transit. That they were going to be paying this much in their car tab tax.”
O’Ban took his frustration public Thursday by calling a press conference to criticize Democrats for, as he puts it, ignoring Republican bills that would not only give drivers refunds but also drastically cut your car-tab bills.
“My bill [6303] would reduce that car-tab tax by 55 percent. It would base that car tab tax on real market value, Kelly Blue Book.”
O’Ban says the bill Democrats are pushing comes up short.
“The other option that we hear so much about and that the Democrats have shown every indication that they’re going to move would just provide meager relief to taxpayers. Representative Clibborn, the chair of House Transportation [committee] characterized their bill as resulting about 40 to 50 dollars max for the average taxpayer. I can tell you that is not going to cut it.”
O’ban is referring to House Bill 2201, which was introduced by Democratic Representative Mike Pellicciotti and cleared the House for the third time last week. The bill changes the vehicle valuation system to something closer to Kelly Blue Book and would give taxpayers refunds for what they’ve already overpaid based on the new valuation system. Pellicciotti says that would cost Sound Transit about $780 million in revenue.
“Seven hundred eighty million dollars, which the amount folks are now overpaying. That’s the amount we need to fix immediately. I think it’s past time that we fix that. Additional efforts over and above that are probably not viable in the Legislature. Look, there are those people on the left who don’t want to take a dime from Sound Transit and then there are those on the right who want to dismantle light rail altogether, but I think most people I talk to want to fix the valuation and want to get the seven hundred eighty million dollars back that they’re entitled to.”
O’ban’s bill goes way over and above that because it not only gives refunds it cuts the actual ST3 tax by 55 percent.
Pellicciotti says that’s simply not a viable option.
“He’s changing the tax rate and by changing the tax rate that would lead to a defeasement of the bonds because it’s affecting the tax rate as opposed to just fixing the car valuation formula itself. That’s why we worked really hard to find a path that would return money back to taxpayers but not lead to additional administrative costs or additional expenses through bond defeasement.”
Republican Rep Mark Harmsworth also called out Democrats for not giving companion bills to O’Ban’s legislation in the House any traction, with the exception of Pellicciotti’s bill.
“It gives a very small amount of relief so instead of a five-hundred-dollar increase you may see a four-hundred-fifty-dollar increase and the average person who is just trying to make it every day can’t afford that if you have a couple of cars that is a huge amount of money.”
But Harmsworth voted for that bill. When asked why he supported a bill he was now criticizing, he said:
“I supported 2201 because I’ll take what I can get. If I can get ten percent back for now while we continue working on this I’ll absolutely do that. I’m not going to go home with nothing. But it’s not enough. The point we’re trying to make here is we need to continue working on this issue and pushing forward to find real relief for our constituents”
Another bill [6301] O’ban called out Democrats for not moving would require the Sound Transit Board to be elected.
“We’re in this place because Sound Transit is not responsive to taxpayers. It’s insulated from that important Democratic mechanism of direct elections because the Sound Transit Board is appointed by county executives and one county executive, Dow Constantine gets to appoint a majority of those board members.”
O’Ban says Democrats also won’t move on Senate Bill 6465 to require Sound Transit to get voter approval to extend the tax if they go over their $54 billion ST3 budget.
O’ban specifically slammed new Senate Transportation Committee Chair Steve Hobbs for not getting his bills out of committee to the Senate floor. But Hobbs fired back in a statement, calling O’Ban’s bills un-thoughtful sledgehammers that don’t solve the problem. Hobbs also stressed he was committed to working on getting bi-partisan car tab relief – and pointed out that O’ban voted to authorize Sound Transit to collect car tab fees. “in this fashion,” three times. But O’ban had an answer for that.
“About twenty percent of what we do is correcting some mistake of the Legislature in the previous year or previous years. This was a mistake and there’s nothing new or different about trying to correct that mistake.”
So with all that partisan bickering do taxpayers really have any realistic chance of seeing actual car tab relief?
Pellicciotti thinks so.
“I do. I mean I’m hopeful. It was really hard to get it through the House once again, I lost some Democratic votes this time. Kept every Republican vote who represents Sound Transit taxpayers. It’s a bi-partisan bill. It fixes the valuation system. It’s what the public wants to see done. I’m hopeful common sense, with the new leadership in the Senate, common sense will prevail.
Pellicciotti’s bill, which changes the valuation system but doesn’t cut the tax, is already making more progress than it did when it passed out of the House the previous two times because it is actually expected to be heard in the Senate this time around.
But again, that bill is only expected to shave $40 to $50 off your car tab bill.
