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Would you like to pay a 6% tax (on top of sales tax) for the privilege of buying a gas powered lawn mower (or any other gas powered ’small-scale equipment’)? The cost of the bill to consumers in WA? $562,400,000 over the next 10 years.

I’m asking this question as someone who voluntarily purchases electrical power tools whenever it’s practical, mostly because I don’t like messing with gas and oil, but also because I like the lighter weight of corded electric lawn and garden power tools. The additional tax doesn’t bother me personally since I’ll probably never have to pay it. However, taxes in general bother me, except those that are necessary. This one isn’t.

House Bill 2425 was introduced by 11th District Democrat Zack Hudgins and 32nd District Democrat Maralyn Chase. It’s an excellent example of what happens when one party gets too comfortable in their power. They start to think they can do anything.

This bill is absolute buffoonery. In addition to the 6% tax (on top of the sales tax) that consumers will have to pay, there’s also the additional cost in the form of higher prices that will be caused by government incentives. Maybe you don’t know how these work.

When the government offers a grant for the purchase of a particular type of product, retailers recognize the opportunity and raise the price of those products and the competing products because consumers think they’re getting a deal so they’ll pay the extra cost (which they don’t even realize is there). I went through this when I was shopping for a front loading clothes washer. When the government incentives were available the prices were higher. When the incentives disappeared, the prices came down at the retailers that I had shopped.

The purported purpose of this bill is clean air. However, I can suggest a much better way to clean the air, especially in Western Washington. Simply build roads that are capable of moving traffic so that cars and trucks don’t have to slow down and stop on freeways. Less idling and accelerating in traffic means less fuel burned and less pollution in the air.

How eco-friendly is this bill? Maybe these ivory tower types in the legislature have never owned or operated the tools they’re making legislation about. Generally gas powered equipment is made mostly of steel, while the electric versions are made of plastic. Steel can easily be melted down and recycled using less energy than it took to refine the ore into usable materials. But the plastics are not only made of toxic hydrocarbons but they also require as much or even more energy to recycle as it would take to create more plastic from fossil fuels. And in areas where there is no practical way to recycle plastics, there’s usually a junkyard or hulk hauler who will pick up the unusable items and sell the steel for scrap (i.e. recycle). And even in areas where plastics are recycleable, the recycling center may not accept the large pieces of plastic from the power tools. Not only that, but in my experience, the better built gas powered tools last longer than their plastic electric counterparts.

The list of problems with a bill like this goes on and on. But I’ll note one other: the burden placed on businesses to comply with this kind of stupid law.

I have to say, though, that parts of this bill are so asinine that I have to draw attention to them. Here are the lowest low-lights:

Sec. 2. (1) Any retailer that offers for sale an item that satisfies the definition of small-scale powered equipment must provide equal or greater shelf space to similar products that are powered by an electrical cord or a rechargeable battery.

(3)(b) If a retailer is unsure whether a similar product that is powered by an electrical cord or a rechargeable battery exists for a particular category of small-scale powered equipment, the retailer may petition the department for a statement of exemption from this section for the small-scale powered equipment in question.

Sec. 3. (1) Any retailer that offers for sale an item that satisfies the definition of small-scale powered equipment must dedicate a portion of its shelf space to adequate signs describing the consumer benefits of choosing electric or battery-powered engines over small-scale powered equipment. Retailers can either purchase signs from the department or produce their own signs consistent with the standards developed by the department under this section

Sec. 4. (1) The department shall offer electrical equipment incentive grants on a competitive basis to city or county governments.

Sec. 9. (1) an electrical equipment incentive tax … six percent

Sec. 13. As a demonstration to other state agencies as to how the requirements of section 5 of this act may be achieved, the department of general administration shall suspend the use of all spark ignition lawnmowers, string trimmers, and weed blowers on the capitol campus by October 1, 2008.

Other lowlights:

• Sec. 5. (2) State agencies have to phase out ’small-scale’ gas powered equipment within 5 years.
• Sec. 5. (3) If it’s impractical the administration of the agency has to publish a finding in the Washington State Register saying why it’s impractical.
• Sec. 8. (1) Retailers who don’t comply will be subject to a class 1 civil infraction every day they don’t comply.
• Sec. 12. (3) Twenty percent of the taxes collected must be deposited into the general fund, which can be used however the legislature and the governor choose. That’s not the twenty-five percent that goes into the clean air fund.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Dumb Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.