Yep – you read that correctly. “To give low-income drivers $20 rebates on their car-tab fees, Seattle’s city government intends to spend as much as $17 in overhead costs this summer”.
In another financially unstable move, liberals have decided to waste even more taxpayer money to cover the cost of the rising taxes they insisted just last year were affordable and necessary.
Last year, liberals led voters to enact a $60 car-tab fee that will allegedly “increase bus service citywide for the next six years”. However, rather than keeping car-tab fees low – Seattle City Councilmembers have decided to stuff the pockets of Wells Fargo by using taxpayers’ money to purchase rebate cards for people who can’t afford the car-tab fee. The cost of the cards? $17 more than the cards are worth themselves.
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, chair of the transportation committee, has acknowledged the outrageous price. “The administrative cost is 85 percent. That is extremely high for something like this. For nonprofits, ideally the administrative cost is no more than 15 to 20 percent”.
“Still, the committee – also including Councilmembers Jean Godden and Mike O’Brien – on Tuesday morning recommended going forward in June, by endorsing the budget amendment proposed by Mayor Ed Murray.”
Their only defense of this insane and unnecessary cost? “‘The fact is, it’s expensive to give people rebates,’ said Andrew Glass Hastings, transportation adviser to Murray”.
But the liberals in Seattle aren’t stopping at overpriced tax rebates in their attempt to use taxpayer money to fund all things transit-rebate-related. “The city also proposes spending $718,000 to promote and distribute King County Metro Transit’s new discounted fare card, called ORCA LIFT, which took effect March 1. It allows users to ride for $1.50 a trip, rather than $2.50 to $3.25″.
Photo courtesy: Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times
Leave a Reply