Does the Guv get it??? Nah!

Locke says he has no firm 695 alternative But governor says he will put motor vehicle excise tax atop legislative agenda

Joseph Turner; The News Tribune

Gov. Gary Locke conceded Thursday that although he is asking people to vote against Initiative 695, he has no specific alternative plan to cut the state motor vehicle excise tax.

And it doesn't appear he will have one before the Nov. 2 vote on I-695.

The governor has been telling other elected officials and civic leaders that he and the Legislature will "overhaul" the state motor vehicle excise tax if I-695 is defeated.

He repeated that promise at a news conference Thursday in Olympia. However, he would not say what the magnitude of that overhaul would be in terms of dollars or percentages.

"I'm not going to give you any specifics because we haven't firmed up a proposal yet," Locke said. Nor did he say when he would have such a proposal.

I-695 sponsor Tim Eyman said he thinks the governor's statements are a political ploy to undermine support for the ballot measure. About 60 percent of voters have expressed support for I-695 in recent surveys.

"They had their chance to cut it," Eyman said. "When we handed in 500,000 signatures, Gary Locke had the right and the obligation to put forward his alternative, and he did nothing.

"Now, in the 11th hour, he's become a sideshow, and it's pathetic, but actually humorous," Eyman said.

I-695 would repeal the excise tax and state license-tab fees and replace them with a flat $30-a-year registration fee. The overall tax cut would amount to about $750 million a year.

The measure also would require a public vote on any state or local government proposal for tax or fee increases.

At Thursday's news conference, Locke appeared more uncomfortable than he ever has been at a meeting with reporters. He also appeared to retreat from statements attributed to him last week about holding a special legislative session on the license-tab issue.

The governor said Thursday he wasn't trying to make a major anti-695 campaign statement when he said he would work to reduce the excise tax. He said he was just responding to questions from other elected officials and civic leaders - most recently when he was in Aberdeen for "State Capital for a Day" last week.

Locke said local leaders wanted to know whether they could tell their constituents that the Legislature would reduce the excise tax if voters rejected I-695, and he told them they could.

Republican House co-Speaker Clyde Ballard said earlier this week that the excise tax would have to be reduced by at least $400 million a year - about half what I-695 would do - to have a chance of passing the Legislature.

"If you don't make it meaningful, the public is going to come along and just shove it down your throat," Ballard said. "If we give them another $30 or $40 (reduction), it's just not going to work."

The state Republican Party supports I-695, as do the state Libertarian Party, some auto dealers, recreational vehicle associations and motor sports enthusiasts. The Democratic Party and a consortium of labor, business, education, police and environmental groups oppose it.

Locke said he has long favored overhauling license-tab fees, particularly the way the taxes are calculated. The governor said he thinks the current use of the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) as the basis for license tab assessments is wrong, because it overstates the value of a vehicle.

The state currently taxes vehicles at 2.2 percent of their original MSRP. New vehicles are taxed on the full value; the tax shrinks by a percentage of the MSRP as the vehicle ages. After 13 years, a motorist is taxed on 10 percent of his or her car's original value.

Locke reminded reporters Thursday that he proposed a "significant reduction" of the license-tab fees in December 1997, a break of up to $35 per vehicle. The proposal was coupled, however, with a call to raise the state gas tax by 11 cents a gallon over five years.

Locke's plan would have cost the state $75 million a year.

It also would have kept vehicle excise taxes pegged to the MSRP and would not have quickened the depreciation schedule.

The Republican-controlled Legislature rejected the governor's plan in 1998 and instead put Referendum 49 on the ballot. That measure gave car owners a flat $30-per-vehicle break and cost the state $128 million a year.

Referendum 49 also slightly modified the depreciation schedule.

The only clues Locke gave at Thursday's new conference about a possible alternative to I-695 were that it should cut taxes by more than 10 percent and should peg vehicle values to fair market instead of the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.

Locke's aides said last week that the governor was considering calling the Legislature into a special session - before the Jan. 11 regular session - to make changes to the excise tax.

But Locke said Thursday that the license-tab issue would be the "first order of business" in next year's session - provided I-695 is defeated and he and the Legislature could agree on an alternative.

- - -

* Joseph Turner covers state government and transportation. Reach him at 253-597-8436 or joe.turner@mail.tribnet.com.

-- zowie (zowie@hotmail.com), October 22, 1999

Answers

zowie

Dont know if this was in your paper, but it was in ours (Tri-City Herald)

The governor grew irritated under press questioning about his plan, or lack thereof. He abruptly ended the news conference while a flurry of questions still were coming. Locke said his tax-cut pledge was simply stating the obvious, and sending a signal to the voters that the issue will be dealt with. There is strong consensus that the message was received, that people are dissatisfied with the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax, that its unfair and it has to be overhauled. I know there is the political will. Several times he noted two years ago he proposed a $35 car-tax reduction and elimination of the tax for nearly 2 million older vehicles.

So the press are finally seeing through his lack of leadership, along with the rest of the citizens of this state.

This part of the article is great But Locke said Thursday that the license-tab issue would be the "first order of business" in next year's session - provided I-695 is defeated and he and the Legislature could agree on an alternative.

Provided I-695 is defeated and could agree. These people are insane. The only they ever agree on is a tax increase or pay raise for themselves. If there is such a consensus that something should be done with the MVET, why doesnt the Gov call a special session right now to handle this. Theyve had all year, and now its become a priority for them.

This is just more trust me, I do right by you. Well I dont trust them one bit. As I have stated before it would seem that the No crowd knows all about his secret as they are telling us to give it a chance to work. There is nothing to give a chance to. Its more smoke and mirrors. The smoke is to hide whos screwing us and the mirror is for us to see we are the fools letting them do it.

Ed  loan me a million dollars and I repay it. I dont have a specific plan on how I will do so after I have spent it all. But trust me.

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), October 22, 1999.

Credibility is a necessary quality for effective governance. Once lost, it is not easily regained, as our First Delinquent can attest (not that anyone would believe what he'd say, anyway).

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), October 22, 1999.

NO, THE GUV DOESN'T GET IT!

Locke promises cuts in lieu of I-695 Tentative proposals include basing tax on vehicles' used values

By DAVID AMMONS Associated Press OLYMPIA -- A defensive Gov. Gary Locke on Thursday pledged that the Legislature will cut the car tax if voters reject Initiative 695, but conceded he has no specific plan on how to do it.

Locke surprised lawmakers recently by making the tax-cut pledge on their behalf, but made it clear Thursday that he won't be offering any specifics before the Nov. 2 election.

Initiative sponsor Tim Eyman called Locke's handling of the issue "pitiful and pathetic."

When the governor called a news conference on I-695, reporters expected him to give details of his alternative to a "yes" vote. Instead, he said, "I'm not going to give you any specifics because we haven't firmed up any proposal yet."

Rather, Locke offered these thoughts:

There is broad consensus in the Legislature, from both parties, to deal with the issue "as the first order of business," possibly even in a special legislative session during November or December, if voters reject I-695. "We will tackle this. There are a whole host of different ideas out there, but at least everybody agrees we need to overhaul and reduce the license-tab fees," he said.

He wants a "significant" car-tax cut, but declined to speculate on how substantial it might be. House Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, said lawmakers should at least cut the tax in half. Ballard has suggested a reduction of between $300 million and $450 million per year, but says he fears lawmakers and the governor will have trouble agreeing.

Locke wants to base the annual fee on the vehicle's used value, rather than using the manufacturer's suggested retail price. He offered no further details. The retail value is about 23 percent higher than motorists would pay under the used-value approach. The governor grew irritated under press questioning about his plan. He abruptly ended the news conference while a flurry of questions still were coming.

Locke said his tax-cut pledge was simply "stating the obvious," and sending a signal to the voters that the issue will be dealt with.

"It's not as if we stood up on the road and said we have a proposal and are making a major campaign statement," he said. "I simply repeated what I had heard in conversations with Democratic and Republican legislators in the weeks and months of traveling across the state.

"There is strong consensus that the message was received, that people are dissatisfied with the motor vehicle excise tax, that it's unfair and it has to be overhauled. ... I know there is the political will."

Several times, he noted that two years ago he proposed a $35 car-tax reduction and elimination of the tax for nearly 2 million older vehicles. That was part of a package that included an 11-cent-a- gallon gas tax increase over six years.

Republicans killed the package and won voter approval last fall for Referendum 49, which lowered the excise tax by $30 per vehicle and earmarked some of the excise tax funds to finance a $2.4 billion highway construction program without raising taxes.

I-695 would eliminate the motor vehicle excise tax, currently 2.2 percent of a vehicle's value, and substitute a $30 annual licensing fee, regardless of the vehicle's age or worth. It also would require a public vote on all state or local tax or fee increases.

Locke said lawmakers would have trouble replacing the lost revenue.

"You have to understand that under Initiative 695, transportation and police programs will be reduced $750 million a year, and there is simply no way to make up that loss out of the ($1 billion) surplus," he said.

"I'm never going to pit schools against roads. I'm never going to take away from education to put it into transportation."

Eyman said Locke's pitch to the voters is "so obviously a desperation move. It is really more comic relief than anything else.

"As soon as we handed in the signatures (in early July), Gary Locke and the opponents had the right and the responsibility to put side by side any alternatives they felt would be better. To talk about this now, in the 11th hour, has zero credibility."

But Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach, defended the governor's strategy.

"I don't think he can fill in the details yet," he said. "There are so many details, and I don't think he could come out with a plan that we could rubber-stamp.

"A plan might do more harm than good," undermining the I-695 opposition if the tax-relief were too modest and angering specific constituent groups if it were so substantial that it would require cutbacks in other government services.

Snyder said a special session is highly unlikely.

http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/99/10/22/11511839.htm

-- zowie (zowie@hotmail.com), October 22, 1999.

""I'm never going to pit schools against roads. I'm never going to take away from education to put it into transportation." " Translation: You're wrong, your EVIL, I'm going to defy you all. It's FOR THE CHILDREN. What hogwash. If you want to do something for education, you give everybody a voucher that they can use in any school they want, private, public, or religious. Break up the WEA monopoly now, before so many people are homs schooled that we lose the consensus that public eductation deserves our support.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), October 22, 1999.

Zowie:

Gov. Locke, like any good tax-and-spend politician, will promise you ANYTHING!! He knows the mood of the voter, the anger across the state, and the real potential of passage of 695. He is only doing what a politican is programmed to do - Tell you what you want to hear. Can't fool my anymore!

On to Victory,

Rich Henderson

-- Richard Henderson (grassroots3@earthlink.net), October 23, 1999.