One of the reasons that Columbia City is such a great neighborhood is, of course, the fact that it's very walkable. The Admiral and I live about a ten to fifteen minute walk away from the main strip on Rainier and I love that walk - great houses along the way, nice views of the water and Seattle, and you get great food and drinks at the end of it!
One of the benefits of living in a walkable neighborhood is that perhaps you don't have to actually own a car (or a second car). If you can walk everywhere you need to go, you'll only need a car for that odd trip. Flexcar started up as a solution specifically geared towards this need - becoming a member means you can use their cars when you need them for those specific errands that just require a car every now and then.
And Flexcar has a couple of cars throughout Columbia City, including 2 hybrids, 2 sedans, and even a pickup truck!
Recently though, the state Department of Revenue decided that users of FlexCar will need to start paying the rental car tax, which is an extra hefty 9.7 percent, bringing the total tax burden for a FlexCar trip to 18.6 percent. Check out the Seattle PI article about this.
This doesn't really make sense to the Captain at all. I can understand why the government thinks this makes sense, but FlexCar is really positioning itself not as a car rental company but as a small trips and miscellaneous company. Perhaps the distinction isn't bright, but it's there. Adding extra tax burdens to those might just price people out of FlexCar entirely - is it cheaper to just buy a beater car now?
There's already a petition online against this, sign it here if you're interested.
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