Car sharing could get tax reprieve

OLYMPIA -- Now that Nobel Prize winner Al Gore has put global warming in the American zeitgeist, lawmakers are realizing an inconvenient truth: It might take cash incentives to get people out of their cars.

Incentive, in this case, will come in the form of a tax exemption or state grants and is intended to give car-share users reprieve from a car rental tax that was applied to all car-share programs in November.

"I don't think anyone -- other than the existing rental car companies -- have a concern with providing the kind of incentive for Flexcar that we're talking about," said House Finance Committee Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina. "The question is what's the right method?"

The specifics of how such incentives would be paid out are still being worked out.

With names such as I-Go and Flexcar, car-sharing programs are credited with relieving traffic congestion and reducing greenhouse gas pollution by encouraging drivers to get rid of their cars without giving up all of the benefits of owning one.

Drivers belong to a pool that shares a vehicle for a monthly fee. It is estimated that each shared car eliminates 20 cars on the road.

"Car sharing is the way to get people out of those single-occupancy vehicles and onto public transit," said Lorraine Wilde, general manager of Community Car Share of Bellingham.

"Without car sharing as a tool in their tool box, they are never going to make that leap and leave that car home or sell that extra car."

Flexcar and other car-share boosters say the exemption falls in line with the objectives of a climate advisory task force crafted by the governor.

The tax exemption would cut close to $318,000 in annual state and local tax dollars that otherwise provides transportation funding.

Gov. Chris Gregoire opposes the tax reprieve in favor of a $225,000 grant for car-share users. Gregoire spokesman Aaron Toso said it would be easier to set aside money in the budget than gambling on a tax break that may or may not survive the legislative process.

Rental car companies decried a tax-exemption bill that is before the Legislature for creating an uneven playing field for companies.

Flexcar is a for-profit company, but a number of car-sharing programs are nonprofit businesses.