Fuel Tax Transparency Bill Signed By Governor

Fuel Tax Transparency Bill Signed By Governor

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. Your future gas purchases will make it easier to tell how much you're paying in fuel taxes at the pump. Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 2180 last week, requiring stickers to be placed on all fuel pumps displaying the current state and federal fuel tax rates.

Representative Cary Condotta says the idea came to him while traveling around the country and seeing stickers in other states ...

CARY CONDOTTA ... "So, I started looking into that and I found something out that I didn't know, that actually diesel is taxed differently than gasoline in this state. Now I should know that, given the position I'm in, but I didn't. I also don't think some people realize what the difference is between the federal tax and the state tax."

So Condotta put on his thinking cap ...

CARY CONDOTTA ... "But I had to figure out a way to do it without spending a lot of money because resources are a little tight around here right now. So, I've got to give compliments to the Department of Agriculture who said, 'look, we go out and inspect these pumps and we could actually put those stickers on when we do the inspections.' Voila! That cuts the cost down to just about nothing except the cost of the sticker itself."

Condotta says that's when he knew it would work ...

CARY CONDOTTA ... "It looks like to me, we're going to be pretty steady on this gas tax for a while. I don't expect we're going to be voting on another one real soon. So, I thought, what a great idea, for next to nothing we can have total transparency with our tax-payers and put some stickers on pumps and people will know actually who's taxing, on what fuel, and how much they're being taxed."

Condotta says it should help instill a little trust among Washington tax payers.

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