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Should you vote for Referendum 51?
Democrats say 'Just Trust Us' at Bremerton forum June 4, 2002 © 2002 by Mary Swoboda
D1 D2 D3
D4
o o o o o C
o o o o o Seating
o o C o T o o o S o D Arrangement o o o o o C o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o R o o o o o C C o o o o o o o o o o o o F o F
D1=Kathy Haigh (D), 35th District
D2=Phil Rockefeller (D), 23rd District D3=Pat Lantz (D), 26th District D4=Brock Jackley (D), 26th District C = Community members R = Reporter T = DOT employee
S = Legislative staff
D = Democrat caucus staff F = Ferry employee
Outnumbered two to one by politicians, their staff and
state employees, five community members attended the Washington State
Transportation forum in Bremerton on June 4 to get a lesson in
transportation funding. Representative Kathy Haigh of the 35th
Legislative District said what is good for the state overall will
benefit all of us. “If [you] only look at what Kitsap [County] gets
or what Mason [County] gets or what my city gets, you will fall far
short of the vision I think people need to have and what I'm trying to
present here today,” she stated as the meeting began.
Referendum 51 will raise taxes for transportation
“investments” in three ways.
There will be a 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase in
January 2003, with another 4-cent increase in January 2004.
In addition, there will be a 30% increase in gross
weight fee for vehicles over 10,000 pounds beginning in April 2003.
Finally, there will be an additional 1% sales tax on
new and used vehicle purchases.
This 1% tax would go to DOT to fund “transportation alternatives”
such as rail and public transit.
Rep. Haigh said the gas tax increase would be very
modest—for a vehicle that gets 18 miles per gallon and travels
12,000 miles a year, the annual cost would be “only” $60. What she
didn’t say is these “modest” taxes will increase the price of
ALL products, with the cost of staples such as bread and milk rising
more proportionally than the cost of luxury goods. Trucking companies
and businesses will have to pay more to deliver their goods and
services, the cost of which will be passed on to consumers.
When asked what the ‘real’ cost to all consumers in
Washington State would be because of increased prices on everything
from food to clothing and other necessities, Rep. Haigh acknowledged,
“There is no getting around the fact that a sales tax, or even a gas
tax, is going to take a much bigger chunk out of the total amount of
money somebody makes, especially if you're making less than about
$20,000 a year. Finding the dollars from car sales to encourage people
to move into public transportation systems somehow makes some sense to
me,” she concluded.
The sales tax is regressive, “putting a tremendous
pressure on people who make less money” and, in her opinion, the
only way to decrease the burden would be “to have a progressive
income tax that is based on some percentage of how much money you
make.”
Answering the question of whether or not the money will
actually go to road construction (i.e., pushing dirt and pouring
concrete rather than paying for studies and administrative costs), a
Department of Transportation (DOT) representative said, “As soon as
the referendum passes there will be orange cones all over the state on
the projects that are ready to go.”
Rep. Haigh added, “We're trying to be very specific
about what those projects are and, yes, they will be pushing dirt.”
Audience member Carrie Riplinger said, “You talk
about population growth, the ‘devastating’ impact of I-695 and how
the gas tax has been unchanged for so many years. Washington
State has continued to hire people, even in downturns, but nobody in
business could do that and survive. Businesses have been downsizing
and even the federal government has been downsizing for more than a
decade. Yet Washington State has grown and grown. Baby boomers
are retiring from the shipyard now. We're learning to live on 70% of
our regular income. It's tough. What is the state doing to economize?
When are you going to have enough of my money? Where's the bottom
line? None of you representatives here have ever answered that. I
don't expect an answer, but that's the question a lot of people are
asking.”
Brock Jackley replied that Washington State is only
about 19th as far as the overall taxation in the United States and,
“if you took the Microsoft millionaires out of the equation, we
would be about 34th in the country as far as the overall taxation.”
Audience member Luella Wells said, “I've lived in
other states where taxation was very, very much higher. The only
reason [Washington ranks high] is that we have so many
multi-millionaires. We forget that in this state we do not pay an
income tax.
Ms. Riplinger responded, “Oh, I don't forget that.
I'm very thankful we don't because you guys [legislators] wouldn't
eliminate the sales tax or the property tax; you'd just add the income
tax to it.”
Audience member Frank Dare added,
“It doesn't matter how we pay taxes or whether it's federal or not.
We're being over-taxed. It doesn't matter if it's federal taxes or
state taxes or local taxes if we aren't able to live on what we are
making while big government is growing. Gov. Locke has hired 10,000
people since he took office, 2,000 more than...”
Rep. Brock Jackley interrupted, “Frank, you're
quoting the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. There was a discussion on
KIRO [Seattle radio station] about that and Bob Williams couldn't
substantiate the claim, that so let's not go down that road because
that's malarkey.”
This sparked a lively melee and finally Rep. Haigh
admitted, “[Mr. Jackley] was out of line and I should have stopped
him. We're going to move on with transportation.”
Carrie Riplinger wondered who would be appointing the
members to serve on the committees that will monitor the progress of
DOT projects, and how these committees will be funded if Ref. 51
passes.
Rep. Haigh could not answer the questions, particularly
how the committees will be funded. “I don’t know,” she said.
“I'll get back to you on that.”
Rep. Pat Lantz, wanting to end on a positive note,
said, “We in the legislature make policy decisions and we
appropriate money, then it is doled to the DOT to be spent. I think we
should all be ever so celebratory on the fact that we have an
extraordinarily capable man at the helm of DOT. He is the man of the
hour. It's good to have someone who is able to communicate so well and
does such a good job with his staff, and I'm just grateful for him.”
She continued, “If we are going to make any progress
in this state, we are going to have to learn to trust, in some
respects, the people who we elect and then those [hired by the]
elected people.”
“If you don't like [Referendum 51] you don't have to
vote for it. That's why we sent it to a referendum, people, so you
could make a choice,” Rep. Jackley concluded.
Additional information:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ Washington State Department of Transportation http://www.thesunlink.com/news/2002/june/06054gastax.html REFERENDUM 51: Lesson in gas-tax increase meets grumbles http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134466342_transpomoney02m.html Spinning Our Wheels: Tax Package Won't Cure Congestion http://www.cse.org/newsroom/press_template.php?press_id=257 Washington State is the 5th Highest Taxed http://www.wetapple.com/opinioneditorial/articles/2002-03-08-EDT-02.html Do D’s have the political courage to fix the budget mess? http://www.wips.org/TaxLimitation/PNPropertyTaxesSoar2000-03.html Property Taxes Continue to Soar http://www.ntu.org/features/ntu_on_capitolhill/testimony_09_01_99.php3 Taxpayer Group Praises Gov. Gilmore’s Creative Solutions to NOVA’s Traffic Woes; Proves Taxes Needn’t be Answer to All Problems In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml] |