Here we go..
Let's do some meth I mean math! :thumbsup:
2011 bicycle sales: 15,700,000
18% of which came from shops where the average price per bike was $680.
15,700,000 * .18 = 2,826,000 bikes
Those are the numbers for the entire US. Let's say for giggles Washington state represents 1/50th of $680 bicycle sales in the US. That's 56,520 bikes.
56,520 * 25 = $1,413,000 in tax revenue for Washington state. Probably not even enough to pay the politicians to argue about it in the House and Senate let alone the administrative costs once it takes effect. Now let's consider another bill being discussed in WA Congress.
Washington gas tax increase proposal faces bumpy road | KPLU News for Seattle and the Northwest
2 cent increase on gasoline every year for 5 years. The total tax would be 47.5 cents once fully implemented for a 10 cent increase overall.
2011 WA state gasoline consumption = 63.4 million barrels * 42 = 2,662,800,000 gallons
2011 Total WA state gasoline expenditures = $9,860,400,000
2011 Average Price per gallon = $9,860,400,000 / 2,662,800,000 gallons = $3.70
2,662,800,000 gallons * .10 = $266,280,000 in additional tax revenue once the 10 cent increase is fully implemented.
Total new revenue with 10 cent gas tax increase and $25 >$500 bike sales tax = $267,693,000
$1,413,000 / $267,693,000 = .5% of all new revenue per year comes from bicycle sales over $500.
If Milton from Office Space was working for the WA state government he could write a program to redirect that much money or more to an off-shore bank account and no one would ever notice.
Data sources: EIA.gov and NBDA.com