Proposed King County Sales Tax to Fund Arts Held Back in Committee
King County Councilmember and budget chair Dave Upthegrove removed from tomorrow’s budget committee agenda Executive Dow Constantine’s proposal to put a $469 million sales tax on the fall ballot to pay for arts and science programming targeted at poor people and seniors, according to a press release. In effect, the fall arts tax is dead, says Upthegrove—though the full council could override his decision.
In a council press release, Upthegrove said he killed the tax proposal because its funding mechanism—a sales tax—burdens the poor more than the rich. The fancy word for this is “regressive” taxation. Rich people and poor people consume roughly the same amount of cereal, gasoline, and toothbrushes each month, but have vastly different abilities to meet the new burden of an additional sales tax on each of those bought-and-sold items.
“This is the wrong proposal at the wrong time,” said Upthegrove in a press release. “As currently configured, the funding is distributed in an unfair manner that hurts, rather than helps, our efforts to achieve equity. The sales tax burdens working class folks the most, yet the lowest income parts of our county continue to be neglected.” Upthegrove said he might reconsider the tax next year.
Deputy Executive Sung Yang said that Constantine’s office is still hopeful they can get enough votes to put the arts tax on the ballot. “Councilmember Upthegrove has expressed his position…but we know there is broad support on the council,” says Yang. “I feel things can get worked on until the deadline. We still have more time, and we look forward to working with all the councilmembers” to get to a tax package a majority can support, he says.
Read more: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/proposed-county-sales-tax-to-fund-arts-dies-in-committee/
