Monorail car-tab tax still falls short

By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter

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A new car-tab tax that funds the Seattle Monorail Project continues to run below projections.

The tax collected just $2.17 million in October, about 30 percent below projections. Daniel Malarkey, the agency's finance director, said the project is working with the state Department of Licensing to close a loophole that allows Seattle residents to license their cars outside the city and the monorail's taxing authority.

Malarkey said monorail officials have asked the Licensing Department to enact a provision in the Washington Administrative Code that would require Seattle drivers to use their primary residence when licensing their cars. While the law that created the monorail project says the drivers are supposed to license their cars at their homes, there's no penalty for violating it.

Brad Benfield, Licensing Department spokesman, said the department is considering the wording for such a change, which would require a public hearing and wouldn't be implemented for at least three months.

Benfield didn't know whether an administrative-code change would include penalties and a way to enforce it. Those issues might need to go to the Legislature.

The 14-mile monorail, which will run from Ballard to West Seattle and was approved by voters last fall, is being financed through an annual, Seattle-only car-tab tax of $85 per $10,000 of vehicle value. It will increase to $140 per $10,000 next June.

The monorail is losing an additional 2 percent to 5 percent of potential revenue because the Licensing Department has determined vehicles owned by people who moved to Seattle from another state shouldn't be taxed the first year. That translates to a loss of up to $2.2 million. Malarkey said the monorail project is working with the department to try to change that.

At a monorail finance-committee meeting yesterday, Malarkey said that so far this year the monorail project has spent $36.8 million — $10.5 million less than its revised budget. Much of the savings is money budgeted for land purchases that have been delayed.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com

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