I’m sure we have all been wondering what the state was going to do to make up for the money it isn’t taking from us after Initiative 695. Well, wonder no longer. According to a Nov. 20 article that appeared in The Herald, the state is proposing adding the state sales tax, about 8.1 percent (about 14 cents per gal at 1.69 per gallon), adding a 2 percent surcharge to car sales, and adding a gross vehicle weight tax to cars.
The state is also considering adding another 11.5 cents fuel tax on top of the 23 cent tax currently being paid (one of the highest in the nation already). Before I-695 took away one of their cash cows, and with the high fuel tax, they couldn’t do anything about our poor road system, which was almost 30 years behind when I-5 was built in the 1960s. The state has not spent its road money smartly up till now, and I don’t see officials doing any differently, unfortunately, in the future.
Sorry to say, I don’t know what the answer is, other than a good light rail and mass transit system. But raping the public with the highest gas taxand what ever other tax the state can ram down our throats is not going to solve the problems we have now without some very intelligent ideas. The public must be involved in helping design those ideas. More taxes is not the answer. The state has proven it can’t wisely spend what it already has. It doesn’t need more for the pork barrel. We need some fresh ideas and some fresh faces making decisions.
Lynnwood
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