Fair’s fair: Moeller, Jacks back bill
‘to even things out with Oregon’

Measure removes tax exemption for Washington’s fuel exports to Beaver State

February 20, 2009

OLYMPIA – Clark County isn’t just the fifth most-populous county in the state of Washington.
Washington citizens who live in Clark County but work in Oregon “actually make us the eighth most-lucrative county in terms of Oregon state-income taxes sent to that state’s Department of Revenue,” state Rep. Jim Moeller said today (Friday, Feb. 20, 2009).

Clark County in fact accounts for more Oregon-income-tax revenue than 29 Oregon counties.
Moeller and state Rep. Jim Jacks have introduced legislation that would remove the existing tax exemption for motor-vehicle fuel that is exported from Washington to Oregon.

“Sixty thousand of our constituents cross the Columbia River every day from their homes in Washington to their jobs in Oregon,” said Moeller, who is prime-sponsoring the measure, House Bill 2277.

“These folks dutifully pay the Oregon income tax,” Jacks pointed out, “and yet no consideration is given to our state’s sales tax that Oregonians are exempted from paying when they shop here in Washington. Among the states, Oregon is by far the biggest beneficiary from the current Washington tax-exemption policy for fuel exports.

“The exemption in 2007 amounted to more than $169 million in lost revenue,” stated Jacks, who is one of the co-sponsors of the legislative proposal. “We need to even things out with Oregon.”

According to a report from the Oregon Department of Revenue, more than 58,000 Oregon-income-tax returns were filed by Clark County residents in 2006 – or just under four percent of the approximately 1.7 million total returns filed that year in the Beaver State. Clark County residents that year sent more than $138 million to Oregon state’s coffers.

One of the state of Washington’s largest industries is the importing of petroleum products and the exporting of motor-vehicle fuel.

The two Vancouver Democrats said that while the industry is very important in Washington, it also carries risks for the state’s environment, waterways, and roadways.

Their legislative measure says that Washington’s “fuel tax that is paid by the citizens of Washington should be matched by the consumers from other states that are using the same refineries and transportation methods to export the fuel from Washington. This provides an opportunity for Washington to ensure that the environment and the transportation system are protected, as well as provide funding for identified mega-transportation projects that will keep people and freight moving throughout the state.”

The measure is awaiting consideration in the House Transportation Committee of which Moeller is a member.