DuPont might raise tax to pay for parks upkeep
By Brynn Grimley, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The proposal would increase the tax from its current one-tenth of one percent to two-tenths of one percent of gross receipts in the south
Council members
"The business community has expressed a lot of concern with the maintenance of the parks and the greenways and the roads leading up to the businesses," Gasak said. "The idea was to put the money where the businesses would see the biggest improvement."
The city assesses B&O taxes based on the gross revenue or usable square footage of a business. The money collected is used to help pay for police, fire, park maintenance, economic development and general government operations.
DuPont is one of 40 cities in the state to impose the tax.
Councilman
In February the council voted 4-3 against allowing the
Now the two council members are proposing a tax increase on businesses to pay for the same thing the commercial group had volunteered to do for free, Coats said.
"The message we send is, 'We the residents of DuPont choose to maintain our taxes at a low rate but we want to increase (business) taxes so we can maintain our quality of life,'" Courts said at the Tuesday meeting.
Council members
"For a long time we have missed opportunities for maximizing our taxes," he said at the Tuesday meeting. "I see there is an opportunity here, but I'm not sure where."
Farrell began offering health insurance to employees in January, which added
Doubling the B&O tax to cover city landscaping -- instead of a critical service such as the fire department -- doesn't sit well with Farrell.
"Every business owner that I've spoken to doesn't think it's a reasonable tax to impose at this time," she said.
But at least one business owner said she would support it.
"I'm 100 percent for it; it's not that big of a deal," she said Friday. "For what we get, it's so well worth it."
Gasak was surprised by the criticism the proposal has generated.
"We're the only two council members that have brought forward any revenue ideas," she said Friday.
A date has not been set for the council to vote on the measure.
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