Olympia council action is premature on income tax

The actions by the Olympia City Council (May 17) are premature. The appropriate first step: Survey the 32,374 registered voters of the city to determine if such a mandate exists.

This has been practice for numerous other city issues (parks planning, etc.) Note that the 2010 failed state-wide initiative to implement a state income tax, while passed by city of Olympia voters, involved a state income tax and not a city income tax and thus provides no dispositive mandate. The local initiative upon which the city is basing its expanded effort has not been submitted to Thurston County elections services and thus the signatures to same are not vetted. No mandate there.

Finally, in a letter to The Olympian (May 22), Dan Rubin, a registered voter and Olympia resident, indicated that while he voted for the 2010 initiative he is not in favor of the city tax. I implore council members to re-order their work flow.

Suspend or defer the ordinance drafting in favor of submitting to all Olympia voters a Survey Monkey survey: "Are you in favor of a city-wide graduated income tax to pay for first-year college tuition?"

Finally and most important: A municipality in Washington is specifically authorized to collect (only) excise (RCW 35A.82) and property (RCW 35A.84) taxes.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Olympia council action is premature on income tax."