Every day I see dozens of WA State Tax-exempt plates on cars on the road and in parking lots at shopping malls, grocery stores, restaurants, even movie theaters, etc. AFTER working hours. The justification for this is that it's supposedly cheaper for the State to furnish a vehicle than it is to pay mileage for "business use" of an employee's personal vehicle. (I wish my boss thought that way!) I wonder how many I-695 opponents drive such tax-exempt vehicles. How much revenue would be generated if every such driver had to pay $30 a year for the privilege of using taxpayers' gas, insurance, and maintenance on that vehicle?

-- H. Murphy (hannah@myhome.net), November 04, 1999

Answers

Yeah, and most of them have "For Official Use Only" stamped right on the side. And I wonder how many of these are single-occupant vehicles? Ever notice how you never see more than one person in a government vehicle? In other words, it's okay for the state government to flood the roadways with the evil SOV, but us mere peasants have to take the bus or Late Rail.

-- Joe Hylkema (josephhy@wsu.edu), November 04, 1999.

Regarding the exempt plates (and they are not just TAX exempt..they skate on all requirements)

But ask yourself, "Why does Laidlaw, who has a contract to shuttle school children on it's PRIVATELY_OWNED buses, have EXEMPT plates on those buses?"

Do other companies who have a contract with state or local government have exempt plates too?

How much revenue does the state lose by preferential treatment?

Why do police cars sit at the officer's homes when they are off duty??

-- maddjak (maddjak@hotmail.com), November 05, 1999.

Exempt plates make vehicles exempt from the annual registration, but ot the emission controls. They are tested, I believe annually. Government vehicle purchases also include payment of sales tax, compliance with weight restrictions, commercial tire tread requirements, equipment and traffic laws, etc. They ARE NOT exempt from everything.

As for Laidlaw, I think the deal is the school districts lease the busses and they are registered with the district as the registered owner, and operated by Laidlaw. Cities and districts sometimes lease vehicles also, which would qualify for the exempt treatment.

As for one in the vehicle most of the time; if only one person is needed to do something or go to a meeting, do you think they should take someone else along? I think the gas savings in the carpool would be more than offset by the personnel costs of the unnecessary employee. I thought you wanted to reduce waste?

After-hours use is a touchy issue. Official use means official use, so if it is used for personal business it should be incidental use while the occupant is on call and available if needed. Agencies have their own policies about what qualifies, but that is something the State Auditor looks at along with any personal use of government cell phones and similar items. Abuses become correction items on their report, which is public record information.

-- dbvz (dbvz@wa.freei.net), November 06, 1999.