With the WA State legislature coming into session,Doug Ericksen has a lame idea
... On the environmental front, Rep. Doug Ericksen wants to propose a bill allowing owners of cars more than 15 years old to pay no sales tax when buying a new car, if they destroy their old car. The bill, which requires the cars to be licensed and in running condition in the last two years, will help limit air pollution while spurring auto sales, Ericksen believes.
"The problem with pollution is old cars. We need to get old cars off of the freeway," said Ericksen, R-Ferndale. "There is a whole lot of environmentalism out there that isn't incentive-based. This tax exemption gives a massive bang for its buck." ... (SOURCE:)
Q. Who owns old cars?
A. People who love their car and people who are barely scraping by.
Q. Are people who love their car or people who are barely scraping by likely to buy a brand new car?
A. Not very.
So who could benefit from Ericksen's proposal? Well... I suppose one of those pseudo-libertarian greed-heads could spend an afternoon with the free classifieds and find something like this:
| [87 Nissan Sentra, Auto, runs, but needs work, 2dr $300 OBO] |
And use it for the tax incentive to buy this:
| 2006 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class CL65 AMG Coupe Gas Mileage: 13 mpg city / 20 mpg hwy Invoice Price: $167,028 (sales tax $14,364.41) |
If it were fixed up, that '87 Sentra would get MPG (city) 28 / MPG (highway) 35, but according to Ericksen it would be better to crush it and put a car on the road that gets less than half the city mpg. (and ding state revenue $14k in the process)
It doesn't sound like a great solution to air pollution... But maybe Ericksen just wanted to propose something to "spurring auto sales" as an early Valentine to his auto-dealer and insurance company campaign contributors.
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