No Doesn't Mean No to the Democrats

UPDATED: Thanks to April for pointing out the news article. You can find the link in the comments section. It turns out that this bill has died due to the public input! I guess some Democrats do listen, too bad, we have to be constantly vigilant of them so they don't slip this crud past us. I guess if they really listened we would not have even seen this ill proposed. -- Scotty
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No doesn't mean no when you're a West-side Democrat. Some years ago the people of Washington didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars each year for licensing tabs. So we now pay thirty bucks. But these Democrats: Rodney Tom - Bellevue/Redmond area, Jeanne Kohl-Welles - Seattle area, Craig Pridemore - Vancouver area, Karen Keiser - Kent/SeaTac area, Adam Kline - Seattle area have sponsored a bill that will add a "fee" not a tax onto your car based not on price, but engine size. The larger the engine the more it will cost. For my 1980 Toyota I will be paying around $100 a year. For my Dodge I will be paying around $360 a year.

Then in 2012 the new fee will go away to be replaced with a CO2 emissions "fee". But when you are compelled to pay something by the government, I would consider it a tax. Plain and simple.

I find it strange someone from Vancouver would support this. When you make someone pay $400 a year again for licensing tabs, he will again go to Oregon to get licensed. Those in this part of the state people will probably start licensing in Idaho again.

The money is supposed to go to "transportation" purposes only, but that is not clarified. So, I would guess, using other measures as a reference point, more than 1/2 of this money will go to putting mass transit in the Puget Sound region.

But the bottom line is that we, the citizens of Washington spoke. But the Democrats just don't listen.

See it for yourself:

Senate Bill 6900