does anyone know where to find the tax breakdown (local, state and federal) on fuel in Washington State?

-- Steve Hammatt (shammatt@sos.net), August 13, 1999

Answers

With thanks to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation---

Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax (Gas Tax)

The gas tax was created in 1921 at the rate of one cent per gallon. It is now 23 cents per gallon (on top of the federal tax rate of 18.4 cents per gallon). Counties have the legal authority to ask voters for permission to increase the local gas tax rate by 10 percent of the state's total. No counties have yet chosen this option. Distribution of the current 23-cent state gas tax is made according to complex formulas, but the 18th Amendment to our State Constitution (approved by the voters in 1944) says that revenues from the gas tax can only be used for highway purposes (which a subsequent judicial activist ruled includes the ferry system). In 1995, gas taxes raised $565 million, or nearly 6 percent of all net tax reven

-- Gary Henriksen (henrik@harbornet.com), August 14, 1999.