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1. celeste17
   Member Profile

   

   I just got my renewal notice for my car tabs today and noticed that the total due was 81.75 and I was curious as to what made up that total. So on the back of the notice it tells me what the fees are:
   3.00 Filing Fee (funds go to county)
   38.00 RTA Tax (funds go to the Regional Transit Authority
   30.00 License Fee
   10.00 weight base fee (funds highway improvements)
   .75 license service fee (supports the computer system to provide license services

   What I want to know is when will I see improvements to the streets that I drive every day? I drive mostly around West Seattle and when I go down California Ave (southbound) it is just riddled with broken and cracked asphalt). And when will the Regional Transit allow me to use it? Is this Metro or is this Sound Transit? When do we get the benefit for all these fees?
   Or am I just misguided in my thinking?

   Posted 3 years ago #         

2. pigeonmom
   Member Profile

   

   Hmm, my RTA Tax is only $17.00. Wonder how that works?

   Posted 3 years ago #         

3. Bonnie
   Member Profile

   We got ours in the mail too. I know they are doing a lot of projects but I drive down 35th every day and it is just a mess. Will it be fixed?

   Posted 3 years ago #         

4. Bonnie
   Member Profile

   Our RTA is $10.00 on a 98 (or 99??) Audi. Its hubby's car so I can't remember the year!

   Posted 3 years ago #         

5. celeste17
   Member Profile

   

   Mine is a 2003 PT Cruiser.

   Posted 3 years ago #         

6. pigeonmom
   Member Profile

   

   Guess it's based on car value. I'm in a '00 Jetta. (and no, lurkers, I don't drive like a maniac) ;-)

   Posted 3 years ago #         

7. Erik
   Member Profile

   

   RTA tax page:
   http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/rta.html

   How is the RTA tax calculated?
   The RTA tax is an excise tax of 0.3%, which means it is calculated based on the value of your vehicle. Your vehicle’s value, for the purposes of this tax, was set by the state legislature, and is not based on the fair market value.

   Posted 3 years ago #         

8. Julie
   Member Profile

   

   I assume the weight-based fee for highway improvements only goes to state highways--not Seattle streets.

   We get the benefit of these fees all the time--only, it's not always just the roads we drive on. For example, even if you never drive on state highways (say, you only ever drive up and down California Ave--avoiding potholes as best you can!), you still benefit from the state highways, in that your groceries get to the grocery store, for example, because you pay to maintain the state highways. And all those people who ride Sound Transit buses aren't cluttering up the roads you drive.

   Seattle's streets are paid for, I think, from a combination of Seattle general fund and city fuel tax. If I'm right about that, your car tab payments would pay for 509, 518, 99, etc., but not for California Avenue, Admiral, Alaska, for example.

   Posted 3 years ago #         

9. Anonymous
   Member Profile

   All those fees are taxes (have you ever looked at your phone bill or a rental car bill?).

   It will only get worse!

   Posted 3 years ago #         

10. Julie
    Member Profile

    

    Taxes are wonderful! They're a brilliant invention of the modern world that allows us to leverage our resources to pay for things we use in common that would be prohibitively expensive if we each had to pay for our own.

    Take away taxes and our community would be a grim place, indeed. In fact, every time we complain about the declining quality of schools, crumbling infrastructure, unchecked crime....we're missing those taxes that we've taken out of the communal pocket, usually by supporting one of Mr. Eyman's propositions.

    Posted 3 years ago #         

11. Anonymous
    Member Profile

    Julie - I agree, taxes are a necessity.

    The problem lies with where those taxes go. Throwing more money into a faulty program won't work and is, essentially, a waste of money. It's the programs that the taxes sustain that need fixing.

    Posted 3 years ago #         

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