Is the Sales Tax for Mental Health Conversation Going Too Fast?
The News Tribune today contains an opinion piece on the 0.01% sales tax increase proposed to fund mental health services in Tacoma. The opening sentence caught our attention.
The Tacoma City Council is moving quietly and quickly toward an increase in the city’s sales tax. It ought to be moving noisily and slowly.
Well, we couldn’t let a story that starts out like that go unread, because as far as we can tell, the Council is following its usual procedures, and not being the least bit secretive.
The mental health sales tax option was discussed at least as far back as December (as noted by the TNT), when it came up along with the nonprofit ticket tax increase, and car tab fees. The discussion was a part of the January 12 and January 26, 2012 meetings of the Public Safety, Human Services, and Education Committee, and received a “do pass” from that committee at the January 26 meeting. It was discussed again at the January 31, 2012 Committee of the Whole meeting. The ordinance was posted prior to this week’s City Council meeting. It was discussed at length at this week’s City Council study session. At the City Council meeting, where the ordinance had its first reading, public comment on the issue was heard from about a dozen people, including State Representatie Jeannie Darneille. The second reading of the ordinance is scheduled for next week. All of this information is available on the City’s website, and via City email communications.
The TNT made note of the issue in December, although it may have been off their radar since then. We haven’t written specifically about this tax increase since it was initially broached, but John Larson at the Tacoma Weekly wrote about the proposed tax increase in January, including a background on the tax and its implementation in other municipalities, and a summary of some of the January PSHSE Committee conversation.
Like it or hate it, the tax has been in the revenue-raising conversation practically since we found out about the budget gap.
Is the story here that the City Council is moving quickly, or is it that The News Tribune just hasn’t been paying attention?
Read more from The News Tribune.
Filed under: budget
5 comments
T tacoma1 March 16, 2012
Taxes make some people go crazy so taxing mental health services kinda makes sense.
J Jenny Jenkins March 16, 2012
The idea that a tax discussed at multiple public meetings (with transcripts available online) over the course of several months is moving “quietly and quickly” seems silly. Whether you like the tax or not (I happen to think it will most likely save us money in the long run) it’s hard to argue that they snuck this one in at the last minute.
F fredo March 17, 2012
Regressive taxes hurt poor people. In the midst of a recession why does the city council want to hurt poor people?
Interestingly, the problems of placing increased tax burdens on poor people has been under discussion in our community for years.
J Jenny Jenkins March 18, 2012
I personally would certainly rather see an income tax than a sales tax – but the reality is that there’s no way our tax-phobic society would agree to that, and I think in the end this tax does more to help our community than to hurt it – by helping the most vulnerable.
F fredo March 19, 2012
I personally would certainly rather see a reduction rather than an increase in the sales tax-but the reality is that there is no way our liberal tax loving council would agree to that, and I think in the end this tax does more to hurt our community than to help it, by hurting thousands of our most vulnerable.