Washington State, land of coffee snobs and passive-aggressive bureaucracy, has a new way to fleece its citizens: the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) tax, a 1.1% surcharge on your car’s value if you live in the Sound Transit district—King, Pierce, or Snohomish counties. This isn’t just any fee; it’s a smug punishment for choosing a car over public transit. If you dare to prefer your own wheels in a “designated public transit area,” the state slaps you with a bill that screams, “Why aren’t you on the bus, peasant?”
Consider the plight of one reader’s son, who bought a 2025 Mazda CX-50 non-hybrid—a sleek crossover perfect for zipping to the mountains, with an MSRP between $30,500 and $43,000. He was thrilled, until Washington’s Department of Licensing hit him with a $1,000 registration tab, bloated by the RTA tax and a pile of other fees like weight charges ($45–$65) and local add-ons. That’s right: a grand just for the audacity of driving instead of cramming onto a Sounder train or bus that might show up late, if at all.
The state’s excuse? Funding Sound Transit’s grand vision of buses and light rail to save the planet. Noble in theory, but it’s a shakedown in practice. The RTA tax punishes you for not conforming to the state’s eco-fantasy, where everyone supposedly loves public transit. Never mind that buses can be unreliable, overcrowded, or just plain inconvenient—especially if you’re hauling kids or gear. This isn’t about choice; it’s about forcing you to subsidize a system you might not use, all while painting car owners as environmental villains.
The kicker? This tax hits urban dwellers hardest, while rural folks outside the transit district cruise by unscathed.So, if you live in Seattle and need a car for work or sanity, you’re basically fined for existing. Meanwhile, Sound Transit’s coffers swell, but commuters still gripe about spotty service and packed trains. It’s a classic government scam: tax the masses to prop up a system that doesn’t deliver, then call it progress.
Washington, if you want us to ditch cars, make public transit reliable and appealing—not by extorting us with fees that feel like a middle finger to personal freedom. Until then, this RTA tax is just another reason to dream of moving to Montana. Keep driving, folks, but maybe budget for the state’s greedy grab.