I’ve learned that the B&O tax provision that the City Council approved reads almost exactly like the terms that the Kent Chamber of Commerce dictated/recommended – despite objections by Albertson, Perry and Thomas.
The chamber has an inordinate amount of influence over some council members – enough of a majority to secure favorable terms for the very businesses that destroy city roads with their large trucks.
All the more reason for Kent homeowners to vote no on Proposition 1, which seeks to burn homeowners with another tax hike.
Make it clear to the mayor and the council that Kent homeowners will not foot the bill for repairs to road damage caused by the warehouse businesses’ heavy 16/18-wheelers. Homeowners and our passenger cars are not the culprit.
The pro-business/anti-homeowner members of the council kowtow to the overly influential Chamber of Commerce, which acts likes it runs this city like robber barons of the old West.
Perry and Albertson are deserving of reelection because they have stood on the right and honorable side with struggling homeowners in Kent – and stood against the powerful chamber lobby. Too bad the B&O terms, dictated by the chamber and approved by a majority vote of the council, will fail to yield enough of the much-need city funds.
But the pro-business council members should not look to homeowners to pay the tab. If the city doesn’t get the needed funds, it’s because they let the chamber bully them into submission and they drafted a weak B&O tax with loopholes favorable to the very businesses that tear up our streets.
There’s a lot of whining going on about what terrible shape the city’s budget is in – but many council members didn’t have the courage to draft a robust B&O tax, based on warehouse square footage, which would have yielded millions of dollars to fix our streets and roads.
Misplaced loyalty and undue influence from special-interest groups make for bad government. We need more citizen advocates like Perry and Albertson on the council.
Thanks for your efforts on our behalf.
– Sandra Gill
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