Washington State Patrol placed a team of troopers outside two Vancouver schools Monday morning to catch drivers who haven’t registered their vehicles in the state, thereby avoiding taxes that help pay for education.
“The Legislature has identified this as a concern, going as far as funding a specialized squad of troopers to address it,” said Trooper Will Finn. “We want compliance. Residents pay for these schools, and the people dropping off their kids obviously live here and need to pay their share of taxes.”
Last year, the city of Vancouver conducted a study and learned that it’s losing out on more than $300,000 in annual revenue from a $20 tab license fee as a result of numerous residents failing to register their vehicles in the state.
Troopers with the WSP License Investigation Unit waited outside Harney Elementary and McLoughlin Middle schools. The schools were previously identified as having significant amounts of vehicles with out-of-state license plates.
The roof of the State Patrol SUV driven by Richard Thompson, who heads the license investigation unit, sports two cameras mounted in front of its emergency lights. Thompson drives through parking lots, and the cameras photograph license plates. A program filters out the Washington plates and leaves the potential violators.
As the school day began at Harney, cars, trucks and SUVs trickled and then flooded into the drop-off zones around the school. Most cars had Washington plates, but every so often one with an Oregon or California plate would pull in.
As the drivers finished dropping their children off, the potential violators were asked to pull across East Evergreen Boulevard to a residential street to get a warning, or a hefty ticket. The penalty for living in Washington with out-of-state plates is $1,122.
Troopers contacted 18 drivers at Harney, issuing five tickets. One person was cited for driving with a suspended license. At the middle school, seven vehicles were stopped, and three people were issued infractions; one driver was cited for open container (marijuana), and another was cited for failing to obtain a Washington driver’s license.
Sgt. Mike Chapman said many people likely know they’re breaking the law. They’re failing to look at the bigger picture, Chapman said, until they have to pay the fine.
“It has an impact,” Chapman said. “They tell their friends and family about the huge ticket, and anyone who’s doing the same is more likely to comply.”
Maria Rivera dropped her son off at school in her relative’s Nissan Armada with Oregon plates. She still needed to drop her daughter off at middle school when she was asked to pull across the street.
Despite living in the area for seven years, she was let off with a warning. The owner of the vehicle will have two weeks to correct the error, or they’ll get a ticket in the mail, troopers said.
Rivera said she was unaware of the law, but she was willing to make the change.
“It’s the law, and we have to follow it,” she said.
Vancouver resident Kurt Kroon was behind the wheel of his new Subaru Crosstek when he was asked to pull aside and speak with a trooper. Kroon took the instruction in stride, as he’d bought the car within the past 30 days and is simply waiting for his Washington plates to arrive in the mail.
He said he purchased the vehicle from a dealership in Oregon because of his relationship with the general manager. A trooper said the car salesmen forgot to take the out-of-state plates off the vehicle.
The troopers and reporters milling about excited his son, Kroon said.
“You made his day,” the father said with a laugh.
Mark Medina, the parent of a Harney student, called The Columbian to express his concerns about the heavy law enforcement presence at the school. Young kids may have been alarmed by the troopers given the recent deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, said Medina, a child mental health specialist.
Medina said the troopers’ decision to show up in force so soon after the shooting was insensitive.
Finn said the WSP made “every effort” to ensure that people were comfortable.
“We didn’t stop anyone on school grounds, and we sent out a note telling people we’d be there today,” Finn said in an email responding to Medina’s concern. “While the concern is valid, our main priority is being caretakers of the law.”
Some vehicle purchasers choose to buy their vehicles to avoid tax on the transaction. While the troopers assume most people previously lived elsewhere and moved to Washington, residents who cross the river to get a new set of wheels and register in Oregon are committing fraud, Trooper Thompson said.
If they’re caught, those fines are even steeper. According to Thompson, someone caught committing that crime has to pay $1,529 for their first infraction. The penalties climb upward for multiple infractions, he said.
Clarification: The article previously stated that people buying vehicles in Oregon were committing fraud. To clarify, Washington residents who buy and register their vehicles in Oregon in order to avoid taxes are committing fraud.
