3/8/13 UPDATE: We had a great conversation with Rep. Orcutt this week about his email, his position and more. 

3/4/13 UPDATE: Lawmaker apologizes for email saying cyclists’ breathing causes pollution, The Seattle Times

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Today, we circulated a screen shot from an email exchange between State Rep. Ed Orcutt of the 20th District and a constituent about the proposed “bicycle tax” and noting that bicycling was bad for the environment due to all the exhaling of CO2. While I had received it from a trusted friend and ran with it, some folks asked to verify its authenticity, a good practice after recent hoaxes that have embarrassed the media (see: Manti Te’o).

I can confirm that the email is legit. Here are the original exchanges between Rep. Orcutt and small business owner Dale Carlson  of BikeTech in Tacoma:

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: RE: No new bicycle tax
From:    “Orcutt, Rep. Ed” <Ed.Orcutt@leg.wa.gov>
Date:    Mon, February 25, 2013 9:59 pm
To:      Dale Carlson
————————————————————————–

Dale,

I am not a fan of much in the House Transportation tax proposal nor of many tax proposals, but I have to admit I think there are valid reasons to tax bicycles. Think about this for a moment: Currently motorists are paying to use their cars on the roads while they are actually driving their cars. At the same time, they are paying for bike lanes because there is no gas tax — or any transportation tax — generated by the act of riding a bike on the roadways. So, if cars pay for the roads they are using, it only makes sense that bicyclists would also be required to pay for the ‘roads’ they use when they are actually biking on them.

Also, you claim that it is environmentally friendly to ride a bike. But if I am not mistaken, a cyclists has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider.  Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.

I know, you own a car and drive so are paying gas tax — but not while you are riding your bike. When you are driving your car and generating gas tax you are also driving on the roads so are only really paying for the roads when driving — not while biking.

Sorry, but I do think that bicyclists need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay.

Ed

Representative Ed Orcutt
20th Legislative District

Olympia Office:
408 John L. O’Brien Building
PO Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504
O ed.orcutt@leg.wa.gov
e 360.786.7990

—–Original Message—–
From: Dale Carlson
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 9:40 PM
To: Orcutt, Rep. Ed
Subject: NC: No new bicycle tax

HOUSE INTERNET E-MAIL DELIVERY SERVICE

TO:  Representative Ed Orcutt

FROM: Dale Carlson(Non-Constituent)

SUBJECT:  No new bicycle tax

MESSAGE:

People who choose to ride a bicycle instead of driving a car actively
reduce congestion, save wear and tear on our roads and bridges, and reduce the state labor needed to patrol our highways. Additionally, bicyclists produce fewer emissions and reduce healthcare costs through increased physical fitness. Therefore, it is unfair for bicyclists to subsidize the construction and maintenance of highways that they impact far less than the motorists. If anything, new bike purchases should earn a $25.00 tax credit because of the savings they provide to the state.

Not only do I believe that a bike tax is unfair in principle but the proposed amount is disproportionately large compared to vehicle excise taxes in the state. A tax of $25 on a $500 bicycle purchase is 5% of that sale. The vehicle excise tax in the proposed package for the state is 0.7%. The federal government even offers tax credits on electric vehicles, up to $7,500 depending on the value of the vehicle. It’s absurd that Washington state plans on taxing bicyclists while such a credit system exists to promote energy efficiency. Bicycles are far more efficient even than electric cars. Bicyclists already pay substantial sales, property, and federal taxes which fund two-thirds of transportation spending in Washington. Bicyclists who own cars pay the same license tab and other car-related taxes even if they drive less.

This new tax would also hurt the bicycle industry in the state of Washington, an industry that already competes with internet vendors and bordering states with lower sales tax. Bicycle stores near the edges of our state have been impacted for years by the reduced sales tax in Oregon and Idaho. Residents would have 25 more reasons to purchase bikes outside of Washington should this proposal pass. In-state bicycle sales would also be lost to internet vendors based elsewhere which neither pay taxes in Washington nor employee residents of Washington. Surely the loss of tax revenue on in-state bicycle sales would offset the forecasted gains from the proposed tax.

Dale Carlson, Owner
Bike Tech
Olympia, Lakewood, Tacoma

Thanks to Dale Carlson for speaking up.

>>>If you haven’t already, join Dale by telling your Washington State legislators that they can do better on our transportation package. We’re working hard in Olympia to make it better, and every voice counts!<<<

In case you’re still thinking that people who ride bikes don’t pay for roads, you need to read this and this and this and this, too.

Tom at the Seattle Bike Blog talked to Rep. Orcutt today to confirm that he does believe bicyclists are polluting the air through excessive exhaling.

Side note: I’ve heard reasons to slow down on a bike ride, but this is a new one for me.

Last week, we offered a simple question for many situations: If we do this, will it create a better world for our children?

This week, state legislators introduced a $10 billion ($10,000,000,000) transportation package.Would it create a better world for our children?

Sadly, it would not.

Washington State is sorely in need of smart transportation investments. This is an opportunity to make it safer for our kids to bike and walk to school. An opportunity to make it easier for hard-working families to bike, walk or take transit to work, school, shops, restaurants, and places of worship. An opportunity to focus on fixing our existing roads while making them safer for everybody.

But in the first draft of the transportation package,politicians have missed an opportunity.  

The draft transportation revenue package includes a little bit of money for mass transit, a little bit of money for maintaining the roads we already have – and billions upon billions of dollars for new highway expansions.

Meanwhile, there is next to nothing that meets the needs of people who bicycle – and those who want to ride, but don’t feel safe. Less than one percent of the package is devoted to the Complete Streets grant program to help build sidewalks, crosswalks, street trees, transit stop improvements and bike lanes.

There is little money left for smart investments because half of the money in the package is dumped into mega-highway projects.

The good news: no one, not even the strongest supporters of the package, thinks this is the final version. The consensus at the state capitol is this draft package is the start of the discussion, not the end. Over the next few weeks, decisions on the transportation package will affect the future of our communities for decades.

Big corporations that profit from building highways have long pushed a roads-only approach. They’ve rigged the system and made our cities less livable for working families and less safe for kids. They’ve had the most influence so far in writing the transportation package. But we have an opportunity right now to change that.

Now is the time for tell your legislators about what you want to see in the transportation revenue package. Your legislators will only do the right thing if they hear from thousands of people like you.

Join thousands of your friends and neighbors and tell your legislators to make the transportation revenue package invest in a better world for our children>>

Rep. Judy Clibborn

Today Rep. Judy Clibborn released her draft transportation package (read more from The Seattle Times).

Cascade thanks Rep. Clibborn for getting this conversation started; Washington needs additional transportation investment and her draft proposal includes some investments we support.

However, the package is still a long way from meeting our state’s diverse and most critical transportation priorities.

The package does not sufficiently provide for the basic needs of our communities: maintaining our existing roads, providing options for those who cannot or choose not to drive, and giving everyone safe places to walk and bike. It does, however, dedicate billions of dollars to hugely expensive highway expansions.

The package’s proposed bike excise tax ($25 on sales of bikes costing more than $500) would harm hard-working small business owners. Most such bikes are sold by small family-owned bike shops and this would impose red tape and costs for them while creating virtually no revenue.

People who bicycle already pay substantial taxes for our transportation system, including the sales taxes, property taxes and federal taxes that together cover two-thirds of all transportation spending in Washington. Bicyclists who own cars also pay the same car tabs as everyone else even if they drive less.

Unfortunately, the package almost completely ignores bicycle and pedestrian investments. Given the benefits people on bicycles provide to the rest of the transportation system by taking cars off the road, this is short-sighted.

A more detailed letter about our funding requests is posted at Transportation for Washington.

Cascade Bicycle Club looks forward to working with Rep. Clibborn and other stakeholders to craft a transportation revenue package that works for all of Washington.

The Neighborhood Safe Streets bill (HB 1045/SB 5066) passed the State House yesterday with a vote of 86-10.

The bill passed the Senate Transportation Committee unanimously earlier this month and should get a vote in the full Senate in the next week or two.

If passed, the bill will give cities and towns the authority to set speed limits to 20 miles per hour on non‐arterial streets without a costly engineering study.

The bill does not mandate any change, it simply provides cities and towns the local control to do so without being limited by traffic and engineering studies, which are costly and time consuming.

“Neighborhoods are one step closer to being safer,” said Matthew Green, Legislative Affairs Manager at Cascade Bicycle Club. “The bill is moving well and it brought bipartisan support to give local communities one more option to make their streets safer.”