Editorial
All aboard for fair monorail tax

	SEATTLE MONORAIL PROJECT This artist's sketch shows the "sinking ship" monorail station site proposed at Yesler and Second Avenue.
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One need not be a monorail booster to realize that a legal loophole letting Seattleites evade the monorail tax should be closed.

Monorail revenues are coming in at roughly 70 percent of the amount anticipated. Seattle residents registering cars at post-office boxes or cabins outside the city contribute to the shortfall.

The House passed a bill, HB 2941, that would require statewide motorists to provide primary home addresses when they renew vehicle license tabs. The bill would persuade some scofflaws to pay the tax.

But state Sen. Jim Horn, the Mercer Island Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, feels it is unfair to impose new rules on people living in other jurisdictions around the state for what is essentially a Seattle problem.

It is a Seattle problem until the next transportation district — a regional district or a county trying to operate passenger ferries — slaps a tax on a vehicle. Any time there is a vehicle tax, people will play address games to evade it.

Horn has another idea. He would give Seattle city officials, acting on behalf of the monorail, access to a list of vehicle licenses so they can be compared to property and voter records to determine who has skipped the tax. The list would help but may not catch a sufficient number of people.

Monorail officials had urged car-licensing agents to rat out suspected tax evaders by reporting people who change licensing addresses to locations outside the city limits — a creepy way to solve the problem. Instead of agents acting as a quasi-police force, lawmakers should close the loophole themselves.

Seattle voters approved the monorail with the understanding Seattle residents would pay for the 14-mile line from Ballard to West Seattle.

Negotiations must begin in earnest today. The session ends soon.

The monorail should not be allowed to impose sweeping changes that interfere with car registration across the state.

But Horn has to be more flexible in providing a fix for the monorail and other projects that would rely on residents reporting correct addresses.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company