Can Seattle really stomach more taxes?
Mar 22, 2017, 3:05 PM | Updated: Mar 23, 2017, 2:18 pm
Seattle councilmember Tim Burgess questions if the city can handle more taxes. (AP)
(AP)
Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess is questioning the fairness of Seattle’s taxes.
Related: Seattle keeps quite on gun tax
In his March 21 blog post, Burgess points out the city almost always tends to focus on raising more revenue, instead of shifting current funding the city already has.
“Alas, we almost always go for more revenue,” he writes.
He’s not wrong. Property taxes continue to rise as voters approve new measures, most recently the Sound Transit 3 tax package in November that also increased the amount people will pay for car tabs.
And the tax proposals keep coming. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced he wants to increase property taxes this year to generate $275 million over a five-year period. He also proposed a tax on sugary drinks — minus diet sodas — to generate $16 million a year for education programs.
And let’s not forget the proposed sales tax for King County to fund arts, science, and cultural education.
As previously reported, Seattle’s property tax is in the middle of the pack compared to other cities in King County — Mercer Island is by far the most expensive.
However, Burgess points out that Seattle’s low-income residents end up paying more in taxes in relation to total household income, as opposed to wealthier residents, who pay a low percentage of their total household income.
Burgess writes and illustrates: “In fact, among America’s largest cities in each state, Seattle’s tax burden is the fourth highest for low-income families and the fourth lowest for upper-income families. That’s upside down. That’s very unfair.”
A graph published by Burgess shows that Seattle property owners of a median-valued home paid more than $4,000 in taxes total last year, and if more proposals are approved, that number would skyrocket.
Burgess says, “this is the tax environment we live with in Seattle. The overall tax burden is unfair to low-income families.”
Fair point.
Burgess says some tax levies are important — including the Families and Education Levy and Seattle Preschool Program Levy. However, he says there needs to be a system that’s more fair to low-income families and proposes more progressive taxes, such as a general income tax or “more specific capital gains tax.”
But we should remember that the councilmember was also the one pushing for a gun tax in the city which, according to The Seattle Times, has collected significantly less than expected.
The City of Seattle said it expected to bring between $300,000 to $500,000 in its first year, but collected less than $200,000. In an email to the Times, Burgess said there were only about 15 potential taxpayers in the first year.
The exact amount collected from the tax wasn’t provided.
The tax is supposed to go to Harborview Medical Center for gun violence research, but it hasn’t yet because of a lawsuit filed over the tax — the research is moving ahead and the city has set aside $275,000 from the general fund this year for it.
Because of the gun tax, Seattle’s two stores that dealt solely in firearms ended up leaving the city and others stopped selling guns and ammo products altogether. One store owner called the tax “unfair” and predicted that it wouldn’t do as well as the city said it would.
Maybe this is one of those that’s not so important after all.
