Car Tab Increases: Legislators Want To Stop 'Blatantly Unfair' Hikes

BELLEVUE, WA - The state Senate held a special meeting on Monday to discuss recent car tab fee increases after the approval of the Sound Transit 3 transportation package.

Last week, state Sens. Dino Rossi, R-Sammamish, and Steve O'Ban, R-University Place, notified Attorney General Bob Ferguson that they want an opinion about the constitutionality of the state's formula for calculating car tab fees.

In collecting car tab fees for Sound Transit, the state Department of Licensing uses a formula created by the state Legislature in 1990. The calculation, unlike consumer car guides like Kelley Blue Book, tends to overvalue cars, which can lead to shockingly high car tab bills.

One man, a Tesla owner, saw his car tab bill jump to $1,500, for example.

Sound Transit Chief Financial Officer Brian McCartan told the Senate on Monday that the agency wants to work with state lawmakers to fix the problem.

The new car tab fees went into effect on March 1.

ST3 will expand light rail and bus service around the region. Light rail in Seattle will extend to Bellevue and Redmond, and north to Everett. In Tacoma, the downtown light rail line will be extended to Tacoma Community College. The measure was passed by more than 50 percent of Puget Sound voters in November.

If you want to know how much your car tab bill might be, the Department of Licensing can give you an estimate. Not all Puget Sound resident live within the Sound Transit taxing district. For example, Gig Harbor and Enumclaw residents do not. You can check if you're inside the taxing district here.

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