I just finished reading the Monday article by Noah Haglund on the car stipend provided to select higher-ups within Snohomish County government, which was just increased by these same higher-ups to $569.32 per month. Using the federal reimbursement rate of 56 cents per mile for business use of a personal car, our county is allowing over 1,000 miles per month for these executives and administrators to travel on county business. I’m not certain what the tax rules are for county bigwigs, but, for the rest of us, mileage for traveling to your job is not deductible. Just how many hours do these people actually spend on the road to justify paying them for over 12,000 miles per year for the use of their own cars? Aside from just driving into work and going home every day?
Perhaps it’s time to re-examine the theory behind the expense savings quoted in the article. Maybe an audit of actual miles traveled would be useful the next time the execs are voting to provide themselves an extra $6,832 in annual salary.
Greg Young
Stanwood
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