Editorial: Questions remain after voters demand $30 car tabs
The people at least those who bothered to return their ballots have spoken.
While ballots remain to be counted, with Tim Eymans Initiative 976 leading with 55 percent of the vote following Tuesday nights count, its all but certain the initiative has passed.
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How state lawmakers will address a significant loss of revenue and how the Legislature will reprioritize certain transportation projects in the state, and specifically in Snohomish County;
How Sound Transit will respond, and what this will mean for ST3 which would lose a significant part of its revenue and extension of its Link light rail system to Everett and other locations in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties;
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And most significantly, how state residents want to pay for highways, bridges, roads, ferries, transit and other modes of transportation on which our economy depends.
Unless successfully challenged in courts, the reduction of car tab fees to $30 from as much as hundreds of dollars per vehicle will significantly reduce state and local transportation revenue. For the states 2019-21 transportation budget, revenue from licenses, permits and fees accounts before I-976 for nearly 24 percent of that revenue. The balance includes about 54 percent from gas and diesel taxes and about 22 percent from ferry fares, tolls and other sources.
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