Updated Sept 15, 6:13 p.m. with Councilmember Kurt Maiers comment.
Tuesday night Richland City Council will discuss replacing the city’s car tab fee with a .1% sales tax increase (one cent on a $10 purchase) to fund road improvements. Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman, who lives in Bellevue, has slammed the Pasco City Council for the same discussion. The Tri-City Herald recently reported that Eyman has pushed Pasco to give citizens an opportunity to vote on the increase.
The Observer reached out to Eyman, who has sponsored about 25 statewide tax initiatives over the years, to ask if he would attend the Richland meeting and if he would push Richland City Council to have a vote on a sales tax increase as he has done in Pasco. He did not respond.
Neither City Manager Jon Amundson nor six of the Richland City Councilmembers responded to the Observers emails asking if they had heard from Eyman.
Councilmember Kurt Maier wrote the Observer, “I haven’t heard from him.”
In 2019, Eyman sponsored an initiative that would have limited local car tabs to $30. The initiative passed with 53% of the vote but was later struck down by the Washington Supreme Court because it contained more than one subject.
Pasco currently has a basic car tab fee of $43.25. Richland’s car tab fee is $20.
According to the staff report in the packet of information that accompanies the Richland City Council meeting agenda, the sales tax increase will raise $2.25 million annually based on 2024 taxable sales. That is more than twice as much as the $1 million currently collected each year from car tabs.
Richland expects a sales tax windfall from the new Costco built in the Queensgate neighborhood, but City Manager Jon Amundson told the Herald that sales tax, estimated to be about $825,000 a year, is earmarked for the city’s share of the modernization of the 911 system.
The Richland City Council meets Tuesday night, Sept. 16, at 6 pm. The tax discussion is the last item on the agenda. The meeting can be viewed live on cable channel 192 and also online at CityViewTV.
I understand wanting to know what Eyman plans, but why would you even alert him to anything happening in our part of the state – please keep his politics out of here – he’s nothing more than a boil.
Hi Ken, I appreciate your comment. Eyman made a big deal about Pasco discussing car tabs versus sales tax without any mention that Richland was doing the same thing the next day. Some people may wonder why? Thank you for reading the Observer. Randy
” he’s nothing more than a boil.” I would encourage you to be more circumspect in your language as we have recently seen how degradation and dehumanization can lead to awful consequences.