The July 27th Seattle
Times, Traffic Lab, front page article “Car-tab initiative could cost region
$4B” typifies its abetting Sound Transit’s mendacious approach to car tab
taxes. First, the car tab tax cut
will not cost residents anything.
Its major impact would be a $328 million a year cut in funding for Sound
Transit. It’s not clear what if
any impact it would have on vehicle sales taxes or other fees in other
districts.
What is
clear is Sound Transit “misled” voters with a 7/08/16 post claiming “An adult
owning the median value motor vehicle would pay an additional $43 per year in
MVET if ST3 were passed.” Yet their
response to objections to the higher taxes in an April 2017 post headlined “Sound Transit
3 car tab rollback threatens light rail to Everett”, was “During
the campaign, Sound Transit was completely transparent about the taxes.”
The Times continued abiding Sound
Transit’s lying about what car tab taxes would cost and then lying about lying. They’ve abided Sound Transit using
legislation enabling them to increase taxes $1 billion a year for 15 years to,
according to Sound Transit’s 2019 budget, $64 billion in tax revenue between 2017 and
2041. And the $54 billion cost has increased to $96 billion in the 2019
budget.
The ”$6.5 billion “lost” out of
the $64 billion in taxes they anticipated in the 2019 budget over the next two
decades if Sound Transit is forced to refinance the bonds is hardly
catastrophic. A Joel Connelly June 8th,
2017 Seattle PI article included the following:
A survey by Moore Information, the venerable
Portland-based polling firm with Republican and business clients, shows that
ST3 would get only 37 percent support were voters given a do-over.
Thus it’s fair to say
there would have been no ST3 funding package if Sound Transit had been honest
with voters. Again it’s hardly catastrophic. The Seattle Times should not continue abiding Sound Transit car tab tax mendacity or lament residents no longer being forced to pay a car-tab tax based on inflated valuations.
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