One of the left’s most annoying tenets is that taxes are too low for what “We” “Need” and that they need to be raised so that “We” can enjoy the fruits of the government’s redistributiion of monies.
But tax a beloved left-wing idea, and you’ll see just how quickly they love “Their” money.
Case in point: The state of Washington taxes automobile rentals at a hellacious 9.7% rate that amounts to a sales tax. King County does similarly, at a 9.9% rate, for a total of 18.6% on top of your daily rental car fee.
Flexcar is a business that operates in King County and thirteen other metropolitan areas. From their website:
Welcome to a new era in personal transportation. It’s called car-sharing and it’s incredibly easy! You share access to hundreds of Flexcar vehicles, often within a five-minute walk of your home or work. You reserve a car online or by phone; you drive – to a meeting, to run errands, or to hit the lumber yard; and you return to the car’s designated parking space, all for one hourly rate that covers gas, premium insurance and 150 free miles.
I’m not so sure that I’d be wanting to take one of their Honda Civics to a lumber yard, but oh well, for a monthly subscriber fee, I suppose I could if I wanted to.
This idea has been a favorite of local leftists since the company came to Seattle in 2000, and I suppose it is a rather convenient one for those who don’t leave their neighborhood much.
But now the Washington State Dept. of Revenue is demanding that Flexcar pay the Rental Car Tax and the locals are whining bloody murder. Never mind that the Flexcar folks themselves make the comparison of their service to a rental company at their website in order to show you how much money you’ll save by using their service. The Flexcar execs and the leftists who use the service swear up and down that they are not an actual rental service, even though they, well, rent cars to people on a subscription-and-reservation basis.
(Barely) Governor Gregoire has gotten word that her base in King County is unhappy and has issued a letter to the Dept. of Revenue suggesting that she would appreciate it if they wouldn’t say things like that, but didn’t actually tell them to stop.
Which brings up another conundrum for the leftists who are up in arms about having to pay “Their fair share” of taxes (like how I slipped that class-warfare argument in?):
If one were to believe the Democrat’s BS Line that not paying taxes or actually cutting taxes costs the government money, then all of these people who use the Flexcar service aren’t owning vehicles and aren’t paying registration fees and emissions system testing fees and are actually costing the state government hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid tax money. It was these same leftists who opposed the idea of $30 car registration tabs, though I notice that the ones who do own cars also quietly enjoy the lower costs and don’t triple their fees and send it off to the state.
But because the leftists only care about their class-warfare slogans when they involve someone else who they think makes too much money, they’ll never see their hypocrisy on this topic. I’m sure the State Revenuers will back off now that Gregoire has lent them her opinion and the whole kerfuffle will quite down.
Tis a pity she’s a whore for the hypocritical green-weenies.
Flex-car is a typical collectivist scheme. If you examine it’s premise, it’s progenitors want to muscle in on the rental business without being considered a rental company, but rather being thought of as a mini-government that owns the cars you don’t need to own but can use if you follow their rules.
I can’t see anyone staying with flex-car very long, nor can I see flex-car ever getting out of the downtown areas very far. Suppose they pungle up $100,000 for five Hondas, and place them in your neighborhood, so you sign up. Then, after a month or two goes by and they are not getting much return on investment, what are they going to do? They are going to move the cars somewhere where they will generate more money, and kiss you off.
That may be business, but the simple fact is that flex-car couldn’t operate without the tax breaks and other perks that the “progressive” muni governments give them.
Oh, BTW, you won’t see many flex-cars in the ghettoes, either, despite the fact that in poorer areas, the density of prospective customers is much higher.
In Portland, flex-cars are located at the centrally-situated County parking lot, part of which is run by a private outfit under contract.
I propose renaming the company “Sweetheart Cars” because of the way they got started and continue to operate. They are just one more example of a business that has moved into a traditional industry by cherry-picking the best of the market, with liberal government help, of course.