SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Legit RVers must now pay for drug dens with Abandoned RV Disposal Fee

May 10, 2019, 5:48 AM

Abandoned RV disposal fee, junk vehicles...

RVs parked along the street in Seattle. (AP)

(AP)

On May 1, the state of Washington began implementing an Abandoned RV Disposal Fee of $6 on every RV owner in the state, as per RCW 46.17.380.

Now when you go to renew your the tabs on your RV or camper or trailer, you now have to pay an extra $6 for all of the abandoned RVs around here.

So the state is going to tax all of these good, salt-of-the-earth RVers, and they’re going to put all of that money in a pool. Then, when there’s some meth RV down in SoDo and the city has to tow it, you — the law-abiding RVers — get to pay for it.

Now of course, there would be another option other than this Abandoned RV Disposal Fee. When an RV is abandoned on a meth street in Seattle or Tacoma or Everett, the cities could just find the last registered owner of it and make that person pay the towing and disposal fee.

RELATED: Fremont RV proclaims, ‘Buy drugs here’

There’s only one problem — in many if not most cases, the last registered owner of these rolling drug dens is a homeless addict. And they don’t have any money, because they spent any money they had on their next fix.

We have to allow people to camp everywhere in Seattle, because it’s us being inclusive and diverse and tolerant. Even Denver, which is similar to Seattle in its Far Left-ness, just said no to an initiative that would have allowed public camping. In fact, 83 percent of voters said no. But in Seattle, it’s just become a given that we’ll allow public camping on our streets and in our parks, on our freeway greenbelts and in our neighborhoods.

We could end it today if we had a mayor, police chief, and city council that had the guts to do what they’ve done in other cities. I’m happy that there are other cities in the U.S. that are not as insane as we have become.

I mean it when I say that the legitimate RV people are the salt of the Earth. And now the state is making you pay to take care of the meth RVs abandoned all around the Puget Sound. Just because you happen to own a similar vehicle — except while you use it for its intended purpose of camping and getting out in nature, the addicts use it as a drug lab. And I find it nauseating.

That’s your tax dollars at work.

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Dori: Legit RVers must now pay for drug dens with Abandoned RV Disposal Fee