In baseball, teams that spend excessive amounts on payroll (you can say they all pay excessive amounts in payroll, but that’s a discussion for another day) pay a percentage over a set limit back to the league. It seems to me the state could, in these dire budget times, demand a certain percentage back. I’m not saying a lot. Maybe 5% of the money over 120% of the money they get back from the state. Enough so that counties feel it but not so much that it cripples them.
I should note, even though the trolls will ignore it, that I don’t like this proposal of mine. I simply dislike it less than the idea of further cuts to education and social services. I’d prefer tax increases, and preferably progressive ones. I’d prefer that the Roadkill Caucus and the Republicans act seriously instead of demonizing state workers. But since they won’t, we’ll have to think creatively.
And, yes, I’m aware that many of the deepest cuts to education and social services are happening in counties that would have to pay this luxury tax. That’s just the price you pay for your anti-tax rhetoric.
Carl, It’s not as bad of an idea as you think.
I wonder if there’s a way to modify it so that counties get hit, but towns and cities get spared? Have people move into town and have their kids walk to school instead of the state shelling out cash to bus a handful of kids 50 miles. There’s nothing wrong with a town of 300 folks. It would be a hell of a lot cheaper to deliver the mail to 300 people spread a cross 50 acres instead of 500 square miles.
Your tax might force the SE corner in our state (population somewhere around 220K?) down from seven counties to one, which if we’re honest with ourselves we’re going to need to do anyway. They might have to close down a bunch of roads or maybe just make them seasonal summer roads. Hell, you can already spend all day wandering around in SE Washington and only see 3 or 4 other cars. We’re probably going to be doing that anyway, there isn’t enough cash to maintain our current road network and people aren’t going to be able to afford to do as much driving as they are used to.
Major League Baseball is a communist conspiracy.
Who really was Abner Doubleday?
I’ve read on the internets that Doubleday got his start in the living room of Bill Ayers.
Extreme BS rhetoric in the defense of the 1% is no vice!
I had this idea about charging passenger automobile registration by the horsepower. A flat rate until say, 200 HP and then maybe $20 per HP after that. Those owners of those 500 HP hotrods and 750+ HP foreign exotics would have to pay through the nose to register their vehicles in the State. Any resident of the State found to be in possession of a car of that type that is registered in another State would be subjected to a fine, say around ten times the cost of registering their cars in the State.
So a 500 HP car would cost $6000 plus the flat rate for the first 200 HP to have their registration tabs renewed. If some schmuck can afford a $150,000 car, that shouldn’t be an issue for them to pay for. They generate huge amounts of pollution, and use gigantic amounts of fuel.
Fuckem. They can pay for their luxury cars that way. It wouldn’t be a burden.
@3
Hey dumbass, people with expensive cars already pay more in sales tax.
Tax by the hp……dumbest….idea….evar….
# 4
No, they don’t. They buy the cars overseas, or in States with no sales tax, and bring them here. There are car dealerships that specialize in this sort of thing, dealerships that specifically cater to the people who buy such vehicles. There are several in Oregon. There are several that work exclusively through the same banks that require minimum deposits of $50 Million or more that cater exclusively to the clientele of said banks.
Rich people are rich because they DON’T spend their money, including on taxes. The entire tax code is slanted in their favor. How else can an individual make $10 million a year or more, and still get hundreds of thousands or even millions in tax returns every year?
The Koch Brothers and the Waltons and the DuPonts are prime examples of this. There are professional sports players that specifically invest in “agricultural property” that need to generate no agriculture at all, specifically because they can get farm subsidies adding up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
Tax the Horsepower, tax the registration. Tax the value of the vehicle. Tax the goddamn rich while they strip the treasury of every cent they can. Two can play that game.
Most of those evading the Washington state sales tax on vehicles do so by setting up a corporatin in Oregon, renting a Portland PO box as it’s mailing address, and then providing the vehicle to it’s “President and CEO” as a perk and for business convenience. Some auto dealerships offer to do this for you, as well as checking the PO Box and forwarding any mail.
So if your neighbor is driving a car with Oregon plates every day, that’s probably why. It’s a scam, and in Washington it’s an illegal attempt to evade taxes. It’s also stupid, because the first time you are pulled over the officer is going to ask you why you have a Washington driver’s license and are driving a vehicle registered in Oregon (you have to show residency in Washington to get a Washington driver’s license, and you can’t get a driver’s license in Oregon based solely on a PO Box).
RV’s provide a big temptation at tax evasion, due the the fact that some of them cost as much as a small house. Every summer the state patrol checks the ferry docks for Oregon plates on RV’s where there is evidence that it is being driven by Washington residents. If they think they have a case, they will refer it for further investigation and potential prosecution.
@3
Gas taxes already do that. The bigger the engine, the more gas you use, so the more gas tax you pay. We need a higher gas tax to help fix up some of our crumbling roads and to put people to work.
@5
People that go to Idaho to buy a car, without doing anything outlined @6, wind up paying sales tax twice.
@5
Lmfao…you need to get into the real world, kiddo.
How many 500hp+ cars do you own? I own a few, and I can tell you I didn’t buy them overseas. I paid the sales tax and every oter tax just like everyone else.
Joe schmoe can walk into any ford or chevy dealership and get a 600hp car over the counter…its not that big a deal anymore.
They been pumpin your little head full of bs….
No we don’t. Seattle/KC taxes are high enough.
What we really need is to keep our taxes local instead of subsidizing the rest of the state. I mean, really, why should we subsidize those assholes? All they do is bitch about us and do what they can to suck more money out of us.
stupid lying bitch @8
Prove you own a few 500hp+ cars.
I say don’t wait for the Bloodsucker Counties to secede, throw them out now!
How many 500hp+ cars do you own? I own a few, and I can tell you I didn’t buy them overseas. I paid the sales tax and every oter tax just like everyone else.
And he’s got the boxes, the matchbox cars came in, to prove it!
@9
How about we require a certain % of local “by in” on road projects so the folks in Adams, Spokane, or Gray’s Harbor counties have to pay higher gas taxes to help pay for their road projects?
@10
I don’t have to prove anything to you, you silly twit. Go to your local ford dealership and ask them to hook you up with a shelby mustang..then take it to shelbys shop and have super snake it…bingo, 625hp…
Shit dude, you can get a caddy now with 550hp….
Little girls like you can barely handle a camry, best leave the high hp cars to the menfolk…..
And the “iranian oil” to fuel them for puttering to the local Wal-mart.
@ 14
And if you can afford $70-80,000 for a car, it should cost you a proportionate about to register it in the State. If you can’t afford to register it, then DON’T BUY THE CAR!
The reality is, such cars are rich peoples toys, and have no value other than that. If they want expensive toys, they can pay the price.
And I used to own an 85 Camaro with a built 400 HP 377 in it. It hauled ass. I used to drive my old boss’s Porche, dyno’ed at 450 BHP nearly every day, for two years. Didn’t put a scratch on it, and honestly I really wish I could afford a car like that. I really do. But I’m not going to go out of my way to get one unless I have the income to support it. Such a car should be expensive to drive and own. Rich people should pay a proportionate level of support to support the nation that allowed them to become wealthy. That includes bringing back the %70 tax rate on income for those individuals at the top %10 of income levels. THEY CAN AFFORD IT.
Why should workers in factories and restaurants pay more, and have less, so they can make more, and have more?
Why should it cost more to register? especially when such cars are barely driven – maybe a few hundred miles a year….
I already paid my fair share in taxes when I bought them.
BTW, if you can find a super snake mustang for under $80k, you should grab it – thats a screaming deal.
I always get a kick out of people who say “rich people”(and Im not one of them, not even close…but apparently obama thinks I am), should pay more to support the nation that allowed them to become wealthy. First of all, “rich people” do pay more. Second of all, why shouldnt lazy people pay more? After all, they are allowed to be lazy and live in a nation that takes care of them and allows them to be lazy and make shitty choices in life time and again.
in some places in the world, if you are lazy or constantly make bad choices, you starve…and deservedly so.
you know what dude, we started with ZERO, still work 10+ hours a day-every day, and have at times risked EVERYTHING in order to be somewhat comfortable. Frankly im offended that people who decide to take the easy way out, never work the extra mile, never risk anything, and then complain about how well others are doing, and how they should be paying EVEN MORE to the govt. Who is gonna bail us out of something goes sideways? YOU? YLBleeder? Rujaxoff? NOT HARDLY….why should i have to support them more than I already do?
You want have be successful and live a comfortable life? fine, then work for it and take some risk – but dont bitch and complain that your(not necessarily you) life is shit, barely mediocre, or you cant make ends meet, because of your behavior and choices.
I am so sick of the “you should pay more” mentality…fuck that, I ALREADY pay more! Why dont you try paying more, for a change.
btw, cool small block stroker motor(or so I assume).
The worse gas milage you get, the more you pollute, the more you pay. Gas taxes are fair like that.