Governor Inslee says state will hold vehicle fee revenue in escrow account for time being

Rev­enue that would be lost if Tim Eyman’s I‑976 is ulti­mate­ly imple­ment­ed will be placed in an escrow account for the dura­tion of the legal chal­lenge against the ini­tia­tive, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee announced today in a state­ment respond­ing to Judge Mar­shall Fer­gu­son’s deci­sion to bar I‑976 from tak­ing effect.

“We are tak­ing action today in response to the court order and in con­sid­er­a­tion of the vote on the ini­tia­tive,” Inslee said in a news release sent to NPI.

“The state will take a fis­cal­ly pru­dent approach by effec­tive­ly con­tin­u­ing to act as if the ini­tia­tive is still in place from a state spend­ing perspective.”

“Accord­ing­ly, state funds from car tabs will be held sep­a­rate­ly and set aside to func­tion as an escrow account. We will effec­tive­ly go for­ward as if the ini­tia­tive is still in place and these funds will be avail­able for refunds as deter­mined by any fur­ther court order. The Depart­ment of Licens­ing will con­tin­ue to col­lect car tab fees unless fur­ther instruct­ed by the court.”

“In addi­tion, today’s court injunc­tion does not change our plans to pause a num­ber of projects across the state as detailed by the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion yes­ter­day. We are doing so in order to main­tain these funds to be avail­able for fur­ther deter­mi­na­tion by the Legislature.”

“This plan is intend­ed to allow us to pre­serve essen­tial services.”

“I know that Wash­ing­to­ni­ans want fund­ing pre­served for a safe, reli­able trans­porta­tion sys­tem which includes pro­vi­sions for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, state troop­ers on the road, and bus and fer­ry services. ”

“I will work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with the Leg­is­la­ture on a plan to move for­ward dur­ing this peri­od of uncer­tain­ty,” the Gov­er­nor added.

The Depart­ment of Licens­ing pre­vi­ous­ly released a fact sheet detail­ing I‑976 impacts, which can be viewed below. The Depart­ment has been express­ly ordered by Judge Fer­gu­son to con­tin­ue col­lect­ing rev­enue sources that I‑976 repeals as though the ini­tia­tive does not exist, until fur­ther notice.

DOL has updat­ed its web­site to inform Wash­ing­to­ni­ans of this.

Vot­ers approved Ini­tia­tive 976 in the elec­tion on Novem­ber 5, 2019. A King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court judge has since issued an injunc­tion. This means we will con­tin­ue to col­lect all cur­rent vehi­cle fees and tax­es until the court directs otherwise.

Learn more from our I‑976 Fact Sheet. To find out what your spe­cif­ic fees will be, vis­it a vehi­cle licens­ing office location.

The orig­i­nal fact sheet, which has since been replaced, is below.

While the state plans to hold the vehi­cle fee rev­enue in an escrow account, local gov­ern­ments like the City of Seat­tle and King Coun­ty are under no such oblig­a­tion. They may con­tin­ue to invest their vehi­cle fee rev­enue in trans­porta­tion improve­ments or ser­vices, with the under­stand­ing that if the plain­tiffs in the I‑976 legal chal­lenge are ulti­mate­ly unsuc­cess­ful, refunds will have to be issued.

WSDOT’s list of projects that are being paused is below. It’s a fair­ly lengthy list.

Pri­or to the elec­tion, our team at NPI cre­at­ed an Ini­tia­tive 976 Impact Map which doc­u­ment­ed projects like these that could be neg­a­tive­ly affect­ed by I‑976. If you have not seen the map, or would like to review it again, here it is:

The Ini­tia­tive 976 bal­lot title said noth­ing about any fis­cal impacts, project delays, or ser­vice reduc­tions. Instead, it false­ly asked vot­ers if they want­ed thir­ty dol­lar car tabs (instead of $43.25 car tabs, the low­est any­one would actu­al­ly pay under I‑976) and it false­ly rep­re­sent­ed that “vot­er approved charges” would be exempt­ed from the fake thir­ty dol­lar lim­i­ta­tion when in fact that is not the case.

NPI con­sid­ers the I‑976 bal­lot title a blaz­ing dump­ster fire. Judge Mar­shall Fer­gu­son also has a prob­lem with it. He cit­ed the defects with the bal­lot title as the impe­tus for his deci­sion to grant today’s injunc­tion against the initiative.

For more details on Fer­gu­son’s rul­ing, see this post.

While “thir­ty dol­lar car tabs” was Eyman’s cam­paign slo­gan, his real objec­tive with I‑976 is to dev­as­tate fund­ing for mul­ti­modal trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture… rail­ways, bus routes, side­walks, bike paths, tran­sit access ramps, and so on. Eyman is a diehard “high­way war­rior” who believes that the only mode of ground trans­porta­tion that tax dol­lars should sup­port is the auto­mo­bile, period.

If I‑976 is struck down as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, Eyman will have failed to defund a sig­nif­i­cant per­cent­age of Wash­ing­ton’s mul­ti­modal trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture, but that does not mean that Wash­ing­ton’s future free­dom of mobil­i­ty will be assured. The onus is now on the Leg­is­la­ture to fig­ure out how to fund the projects and ser­vices that are need­ed while address­ing vot­er angst about vehi­cle fees.