Avoiding the Seattle Monorail Tax

As I've mentioned earlier, the dubious Seattle Monorail Project is funded solely by an excise tax on Seattle automobiles, paid upon vehicle re-registration.

Unfortunately for the Monorail, no law has ever created an enforceable mechanism for collecting the tax and there are no penalties for not paying the tax. In other words, the "tax" is voluntary. If you are one of the tens of thousands of Seattlites who believe that the Monorail should not proceed in its present condition, one of the most effective things you can do to both stop the Monorail and reduce your personal exposure to its consequences is to simply choose not to pay the tax.

It comes down to this: The only way you end up paying the tax is if you register your car at a Seattle address. But there is no state law that mandates which address must be used for vehicle registration and the mechanisms designed to encourage registration at a specific type of address are flimsy and, I believe, easily surmountable.

Avoiding the tax got a little harder as of today, with a new administrative rule change imposed by the Department of Licensing, that supposedly requires a vehicle owner to provide their "primary residence" address under penalty of perjury. But this rule change is of questionable legitimacy -- it is not required under current law and it was adopted in direct contradiction of legislative intent. Furthermore, it appears to be unenforceable. Again, there is no law that requires you to register your vehicle at the address where you are, say, registered to vote. And there is no penalty for registering your vehicle at a different address. The only penalty now would be for committing perjury at the time that you register your vehicle. You do not want to commit perjury.

Committing perjury by supplying false information on the new DOL form is a "Class C felony", the maximum penalty for which is:

confinement in a state correctional institution for five years, or by a fine in an amount fixed by the court of ten thousand dollars, or by both such confinement and fine.

Again, YOU DO NOT WANT TO COMMIT PERJURY. Therefore, as I understand it the key is to fill out the form with your choice of address, but in such a way that you do not commit perjury.

The new form guides you to provide your "Washington State primary residence address" and to sign the form. If you provide anything other than your "primary residence address" and sign the form, it is perjury. On the other hand, if you amend the form with a handwritten note of clarification, such as "the above address is a valid address for vehicle registration consistent with my understanding of Washington state law" before you sign it, then I believe that it would not be perjury. (Again, you probably want to check with an attorney before you actually do this, and I invite any attorneys to comment on this suggestion). I did run this idea by the manager of one of the private-sector vehicle registration agencies and she said that they would accept a form with such an amendment and file your registration as complete and hand over the tabs.

Bear in mind a couple of other things:
1) The above analysis applies not only to avoiding the Seattle Monorail tax, but also avoiding the Sound Transit tax which applies to vehicle registrations in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties. Unless you like the idea of paying for vastly expensive train service that carries hardly any passengers, why not register outside the tri-county area altogether.

2) I don't believe you actually have to receive any mail in order to register your vehicle. All steps can be accomplished online and in-person. In other words, the address you provide for registration doesn't have to be one where you can easily retrieve your mail. Just be sure to remember your next renewal date.

Yes, this might seem a little aggressive, but it's not against the law. On the other hand, both the Monorail and Sound Transit are projects of highly questionable value, and their agencies are largely unaccountable to the public and disregard voter intent whenever it suits their agendas. Refusing to cooperate with them is not merely a legal prerogative. It's a civic duty.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 23, 2004 11:12 AM