If you want to stop the mileage tax, you need to vote Republican this November.
I have found that a lot of people don’t often understand the overwhelming power of state agencies, and they certainly don’t understand who has jurisdiction over them.
Agency rules and decisions almost always have the force of law and unfortunately, the courts often give precedence to agencies when people try to fight them. But another important aspect of agencies is that they are part of the Executive Branch. They belong to the Governor – he appoints their heads and he can give the direction to act within the broad authorities they often have.
The Legislature can pass a law that is specific to make them do something, more more often, they pass a law that is a general one and then tell the agency to “come up with appropriate rules.”
That’s why you need to pay attention to this article. Commissions and WSDOT will have a great deal of power of the implementation of a mileage tax. It’s a terrible way to tax in the rural areas for sure, but even worse, they are specifically talking about ways to spend the money on things outside of transportation – something the Constitution prevents them from doing with the gas tax. We need a Republican Governor to change the direction of our agencies!
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