Jolt
Republicans for Fee Increases
Today's winners: Fees.
Republicans, apparently, are opposed to fees when they pay for things like transit and the state ferry system (see: The senate transportation budget, Tim Eyman's Initiative 1053), and for them when they penalize progressive things like buying electric cars.
Fees got the big senate thumbs up today in a 26-15 vote, with eight Republicans---including outspoken fee opponents Jim Honeyford (R-15, Sunnyside) and Bob Morton (R-7), who voted against a fee to pay for state parks---going for the $100 fee. Legislators justified the fee by arguing that of course no one wants to provide a disincentive to buying electric cars, but that drivers who don’t pay gas taxes should have to “pay their fair share."
(Counterarguments to the faulty logic that drivers "pay for roads," and thus that electric car owners should pitch in, here).
Republicans, apparently, are opposed to fees when they pay for things like transit and the state ferry system (see: The senate transportation budget, Tim Eyman's Initiative 1053), and for them when they penalize progressive things like buying electric cars.
Fees got the big senate thumbs up today in a 26-15 vote, with eight Republicans---including outspoken fee opponents Jim Honeyford (R-15, Sunnyside) and Bob Morton (R-7), who voted against a fee to pay for state parks---going for the $100 fee. Legislators justified the fee by arguing that of course no one wants to provide a disincentive to buying electric cars, but that drivers who don’t pay gas taxes should have to “pay their fair share."
(Counterarguments to the faulty logic that drivers "pay for roads," and thus that electric car owners should pitch in, here).
