Plus WA has the nations highest liquor tax.
Went to Jeckyl Island, GA last year, stopped at a boutique tourist liquor store (only one on the island).
Grabbed a bottle of cheap Bourbon for $12, and the clerk apologized for the high price.
I told him I was from Washington State and $12 OTD seemed like a good price to me.
He said he had a hard time believing anyone would pay that much and not complain. Hahaha

It amazing to think thru the logic that took place back then.... no one was really 'complaining' about the high tabs back then, it was just a fact of living in WA. Eyenman came along and said "theres a surplus in the DOT funds - tabs should be slashed to a mere fraction of what they were" giving no thought to future projects or maintenance. Of course, everybody thought it was a great idea and voted for it.... Look where it got us... toll bridge, toll lanes, shitty roads... That one initiative basically gutted the states roadway funds. Looking back, instead of a flat tax of $35 (which never really happened, remember all the uproar over RTA charges?) it should have been cut back to 1/2 or 1/3 of what it was, still based off of vehicle value --- regardless of how they valued the vehicles back then.

Its just criminal that the tab fees have been re-instituted and 100% earmarked for light rail that will benefit so few --- those who don't pay for car tabs ---- and our roads still suck...

WA hasn't spent highway money on regular highway lanes in years.
Goes to mass transit, HOV lanes, bicycle lanes, and hiking trails.

ST3 taxes - Furious for the state of WA, and all these new taxes are garbage.

I didn't notice it on my ballot, so I wondered back then if that was an oversight or it didn't apply to me.

But out of curiosity I looked it up, and I am literally 100 yards outside of the ST3 tax zone. Sucks for the victims in Pierce and King counties though. I'm just super thankful that I'm not in the ick zone.

http://rtamaps2.soundtransit.org/st_det ... 1490403289

So... ah... mind if I register my cars at your place?

JK, My truck is 30 this year so I can get collector plates for it. Must be a sign.

Exactly...

People are going to find a way to bypass the tax, and this is one of them.

Instead of paying every year, they're not only gonna lose the RTA tax, but they're going to lose the normal yearly plate/tab revenue every year as well....

I foresee a shit ton of 1987 and older vehicles getting those plates.

I specifically bought my M1031, M1010, and M934, with age in mind, due to the one time registration....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Correct.
Happy endings from the .gov are not allowed.

See if it's nice enough you could say that driving it regularly is giving pleasure to others by seeing it.


I'll be surprised if collector plates arnt changed to yearly here very soon.

Your Mom seems OK with it.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner...

I've got nothing but compliments on my rigs, even by cops...

But then again, I only drive my rigs maybe once a week at most, so... they really are 'weekend show cars'....

Where things get dicey, specifically with military vehicles like jeeps, is they were usually married to a trailer, as a standalone jeep was stupid when they could be hauling needed supplies... But according to the RCW, they can't tow a trailer.. so.. LEGALLY, they'd be breaking the law if they towed the trailer, even if it was 'part of' the display (Well, according to the new RCW, they removed the 'no towing' restriction) ... Stupid....Also, not able to carry anything.... WSP told me that I'm not allowed to have anything in/on it that it wouldn't normally have, so TECHNICALLY getting groceries in it, may be considered unlawful, but may also fall under the 'showing off' part of the law, Ie I was showing it off at the grocery store and decided to buy some groceries while I was there... Which, again, falls in line with the INTENT of the law, but makes things dicey sometimes. Then there's the vague 'use as an ordinary vehicle' verbiage, which hasn't been nailed down as of yet...


HOWEVER...

DOL and WAC/RCW aren't always in line with one another, so check the laws. They changed the laws a couple years ago IIRC because EVERYONE was buying older BMWs and VWs and getting collectors plates, to use them as daily drivers to/from work....They had a big crackdown, and Seattle area LE, including WSP, were handing out tickets left and right for people that were caught doing so....



Looks like they removed the 'for mechanical reasons' that they used to have on there, used to be able to drive it to get parts/take it to the mechanic/etc...also looked like they removed the 'for pleasure of others'...

Fucking great.. Yet another instance where DOL is giving out bad information (The other being about CDL requirements)..


EDIT:

Forgot to add...

I saw a guy in Gig Harbor with a SAMPLE plate from the '60s... It was XYZ 123 . Asked him how he managed to run that by DOL, he said he just gave them the plate and they set it up.. Hahaha.. They're a dime a dozen on Ebay, and he said he's never been pulled over with it, after having ran it for YEARS...


Restored plates, which are actual plates that would have been issued on the vehicle in question, Ie you got a 68 vehicle so you can get a plates from 62-70 (or whatever that series of plates was), is another bag of tricks....

Restored plates do NOT come back when they're looked up, because the plate number IS NOT the plate number, it's the equipment number, so it's not unusual for the plates to come back 'no record' or registered to something else...

Then you gotta deal with these idiots.. One situation, a guy is arrested, and charged with possession of stolen vehicle, because the cop didn't know how to run the plate, DESPITE having his registration, then the dispatcher runs the WRONG VIN....




And a guy in Leavenworth had his plates STOLEN by a deputy, because he didn't know about RESTORED plates..., which of course, he had, and were STOLEN by the deputy... When the deputy comes back, PISSED, because he's wrong, he writes the guy a ticket...

Got the renewal notice for my car yesterday.

It's a 1994 Toyota Celica. RTA tax is $21.

Working backwards the $21/1.1%= $1,909.09. Multiply that x10 (13 yrs and older are depreciated to 10% of MSRP)= $19,090.91

The MSRP I could find online is $18,898.00 for my car. The automatic was $800 more. I have the original window sticker for it in my shop, will check it this afternoon.

This is on top of Tacoma's $20 per tab tax and all the other fees and taxes. Total is $104.75, for a 20+ year old car that I might drive once a week. Between this and insurance I'm probably not going to renew. I'll just drive my truck everywhere and store the car till I move. The gas savings is not enough to justify the expense anymore.

One thing I noticed when researching this is that the DOL says that antique cars and motorcycles have to pay the tax. I wonder if I will get a bill for my '78 kz400 that has a collector plate? I never paid it before when the RTA tax was .3% of value (started in 2008 I think?). I'm guessing that since I don't have to renew tabs then the tax doesn't apply. It's only for new and renewal vehicle registrations. It's odd that they would put that on the list, but I guess if I get collector plates for my truck it will be a renewal of sorts and they will charge me the tax at that point.

Yup, like I said before, the rule of unintended consequences. You're not the only one who has an older car for a beater, whose increased taxes make them reconsider using that vehicle. So not only will they not get the RTA tax, they're also not going to get the additional revenue from the registration of that vehicle.

As I've stated before, Maryland learned that the hard way. They raised in the state income tax on rich people, so rich people left. Instead of an estimated 500 million dollars in additional Revenue, they were negative 130 million dollars year-over-year because of the rich people that moved out of the state. LOL.

I see this going a similar way, but to a lesser degree. They're actually going to lose a significant amount of revenue from people that aren't going to renew or going to cheat the system and register their vehicle in a different state

I remember reading about a fellow that thought it would be cool to have a personal license plate that said "NO PLATE". It did look cool but as time went on he got and fought many tickets. It seems everytime an officer wrote a ticket for a car with no plate that offense was charged to him. He gave up the plate as a bad idea.