Seattleites face “six special taxes totaling $145 million a year.” By the end of 2014, that total may increase to eight special taxes “totaling $228 million — a 57 percent dollar increase.” According to the Seattle Times, “No other city in King County has more than one.”
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray introduced his plan to pay for Metro bus routes in Seattle on Tuesday. Murray’s plan would implement a Seattle-only $60 car tab and a .1% sales tax. The projected tax receipts would amount to $45 million a year.
On the August ballot, Seattleites will vote on a $48 million-a-year parks measure—the “largest special levy in city history.”
And, today, Murray and City Councilmember Tim Burgess will “announce their program to provide universal preschool in Seattle.” Their plan would require another special tax levy to bring in “$58 million for four years (so about $15 million a year).”
As if that was not enough, the Seattle Times reports that the Seattle City Council “discussed putting on another levy to pay for public financing of city elections.”
Murray doesn’t think tax fatigue is an issue for Seattleites despite the plethora of new tax levies. The Mayor told the Seattle Times, “I don’t think this is unreasonable… It reflects Seattle values.”
Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times doesn’t seem to agree… at least not with the approach Seattle’s elected officials use to garner support for their tax-hike spree. Westneat,
“But elected officials again started in with the scaremongering should voters consider saying no — what I referred to on the Metro vote last month as “electioneering by threat: Vote yes or I’ll shoot this puppy.”
Westneat goes on to quote a recent editorial by Councilmember Sally Bagshaw,
“You like your pottery class, your yoga class, and computer classes? Too bad. You won’t get more than you have now, maybe less,” she said, forecasting a bleak future if the parks department must scrape by on its regular $135 million (!) annual operating budget.”
“This reminds me of that old Seinfeld character the “Soup Nazi.” If you didn’t do what he wanted he’d shout “no soup for you!”
“Vote for these taxes, Seattle. Or no yoga for you!
“But seriously, the question at the beginning was “how much more can they send at us?” Answer: A lot.”
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