City income tax a legal non-starter

I urge city residents to go to olympia.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx, locate the April 19 session and press the "media" button therein to view the feedback from tax expert Hugh Spitzer.

Spitzer repeatedly, in response to council questions and generally, expressed his deep doubts that the proposed local initiative (and, in turn, an expanded city version) would ultimately succeed. He indicated that the state Supreme Court has "recently and repeatedly" rejected such initiatives as lacking express authority within Washington state law.

Mr. Spitzer and his law firm Foster Pepper are long-time city consultants and he himself is an advocate for a broader interpretation of the taxation powers of cities. That notwithstanding, he could offer no positive outlook for the proposed council action.

Also covered in the discussion are the myriad implementation obstacles (Department of Revenue won't collect it if it is deemed to be illegal). Upon viewing the session minutes, I urge the citizens of Olympia to contact the council en masse at citycouncil@ci.olympia.wa.us and express your feelings about this effort and question, as I have, why is the city, with no mandate and adverse counsel, proceeding to undertake this at taxpayer expense?

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 10:26 AM with the headline "City income tax a legal non-starter."