New Proposed Taxes in Washington state..... (Kent: sale, income, property taxes)

[509]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

..............Believe it or not....
Not one person has ever told me to my face that Idaho or California might be better suited for me.
That just sounds rather rude to me.

I think all opinions matter and not should be silenced.

Can we at least agree that having diversity is a good thing?............

Andy

Actually, Andy...people like SeaCove have come a long way. When I first immigrated to this country, when people disagreed with me.....I was told to "go back to my country".


SeaCove now wants me to move back to Idaho. At least, I get to stay in my adopted country.


That is progress.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Your title is very misleading, there are very few new taxes listed, almost all of them are simply increases in existing taxes. I would expect most to pass, voters in our state (west of the mountains, anyway) tend to approve taxes as long as there is no income tax.

I actually like one of them: Pay-by-the-mile charges begin in 2025-2026 to replace existing $225 car-tab fee on electric and hybrid cars.

I don't care about going from $10-20 to change your driver license picture, they can go to $50, I would never care about my bad picture.

Pay-by-the-mile is one of my beefs with the increases. Supposedly we are trying to attract people to go to hybrid/electric cars, but greedy legislators will surely put them right back at par with gas/diesels by cost per mile, and then you have the extra $10K+ that these vehicles cost.

I also dislike fee's from many of the transportation based tax hikes applied state wide being used to subsidize the tolls for the narrows bridge I never use and the ferries that are always booked full all summer I never get to use.

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

Pay-by-the-mile is one of my beefs with the increases. Supposedly we are trying to attract people to go to hybrid/electric cars, but greedy legislators will surely put them right back at par with gas/diesels by cost per mile, and then you have the extra $10K+ that these vehicles cost.

I also dislike fee's from many of the transportation based tax hikes applied state wide being used to subsidize the tolls for the narrows bridge I never use and the ferries that are always booked full all summer I never get to use.

Western Washington pays for many things they don't use. Ferries get booked, it's part of living here.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Seacove

Western Washington pays for many things they don't use. Ferries get booked, it's part of living here.

King County pays many of the other counties welfare bills, of which I am far from being a recipient btw. Our "dime" as the state used to call it (gas tax for roads-now they want another dime), is pretty much gone by the time you get up here. Our overpasses on I-5 which are state responsibility, are a patchwork of potholes, "fixed" potholes, and misaligned expansion joints such that you can feel the seismic action through the ground a block away as 18 wheelers pass over them, and if you're behind one, see air between the trailers tires and the road (yes its so bad they catch 4-6" of air). Meanwhile, many of us even on upper middle class incomes barely scrape by, all the while having more taxes rammed down our throats to subsidize ferries, toll bridges, transit (car tab weight fees-statewide) for transportation projects we can't or don't use.

[Hemlock140]

I guess I shouldn't complain about our pothole problem. We have a main arterial that provides most of the traffic from I90 and Issaquah/and back to Sammamish, which has potholes bad enough to damage tires, and that even fill with water. Unfortunately they are in the Issaquah city limits, so neither city wants to pay to fix them. In your case, it does seem that the state spends more road money on the more populated areas, especially adding more toll lanes that no one uses.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by Seacove

People keep moving here. I hear Idaho might be cheaper?

Just as a point of reference, Idaho is the only pnw State that has both a sales tax AND income tax. Granted the rates are lower than WA or OR.

[CARas2020]

Curious and I know it matters where you are but how much is gas up around Seattle? It's well over $3 a gallon here in OR (PDX area)

[rkcarguy]

$3.29 here for regular a couple days ago.
They are trying to add another 9.8 cents/gallon tax.
There are total tax load calculators online, where you can enter your income or would-be income, and it provides a snap shot of your approx. total tax load by state. Surprisingly, many states with income and sales taxes have a lower total tax load than Washington does. We have some of the highest sales taxes and gas taxes in the country.

[blau808]

Originally Posted by 509

The bottom line it is MONEY I have to pay!!! Increases or new taxes are the same in impact on taxpayers.

It is a SIGNIFICANT tax increase when you add up the little bits and pieces, plus the two major ones of gas tax of 10 cents and carbon tax.

Somebody should do an analysis on the cost to the average person.

You could go line by line and put a price on the ones that affect you.
I did, and it comes up to about $15 minus the gas tax, not that big of a deal.

The gas tax is really the only one that hits hard. While I can't say I would enjoy the increase, throwing this big list of small increases in existing taxes that would hardly affect the average citizen, with big million dollar numbers invoked to get a gut reaction out of readers is a silly gesture and reeks of a political agenda.

[509]

Originally Posted by blau808

You could go line by line and put a price on the ones that affect you.
I did, and it comes up to about $15 minus the gas tax, not that big of a deal.

The gas tax is really the only one that hits hard. While I can't say I would enjoy the increase, throwing this big list of small increases in existing taxes that would hardly affect the average citizen, with big million dollar numbers invoked to get a gut reaction out of readers is a silly gesture and reeks of a political agenda.

quick look...my estimate around $500 without the gas tax.