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Assessors also fear initiative's passage
Assessors Also Fear Initiative's Passage
Published in the Herald-Republic on Wednesday, September 29, 1999
By DAVID LESTER
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
County assessors in Washington state want no part of trying to collect personal
property taxes on vehicles.
But that's precisely what would happen, assessors say, if voters approve Initiative
695, the so-called $30 car-tab measure.
Yakima County Assessor Dave Cook said taxing vehicles would be a logistical
nightmare for his department.
Cook said Tuesday his office would have to determine a value for the approximately
250,000 cars in the county and contact their owners, all in less than two months
before the start of the new year.
Taxing vehicles as property would dramatically increase the office's operating
costs and not result in any new revenue, he said.
Cook said the increased value that would result from adding vehicles to the
tax rolls would only reduce levy rates, bringing in the same amount of tax collections
overall.
For that reason, assessors are asking the Legislature to amend the initiative
-- should it pass -- to reinstate the property tax exemption for cars, trucks,
motorhomes and campers after they convene in January.
Private vehicles were exempted from property tax when the state imposed the
motor vehicle excise tax. The 2.2 percent tax on a vehicle's value is the prime
target of I-695. The initiative would eliminate the tax and repeal a number
of other laws, including the property-tax exemption on vehicles.
In addition to eliminating the excise tax, the initiative requires that all
tax and fee increases at the state and local level be put to a vote of the people.
Assessors took the action during their annual meeting in Pasco last week.
