Taxes on Taxes

Do you know the State and the City of Mercer Island will be charging us millions of dollars on the the proposed school project in the form of taxes and permitting fees. I found this out at one of those public meetings the school board held. The new elementary school serves as an example. I noticed that the ‘overhead’ costs approached 50 percent of the actual construction costs. Upon asking what these were, I was listed the usual overhead, architects, those running the public meetings etc. Still this seemed very high. I paraphrase the next response ‘you do realize that the State charges us sales tax on the construction and that Mercer Island has very high permitting costs’. Excuse me! Asking citizens to pay a tax on tax is an absurd notion. In my bashful way I stated “That’s ridiculous”. Behind me came the comment, again paraphrased,  “The state needs their money”. It was none other than our own city council member Debbie Bertlin! 

So let’s get this straight. Go to the citizens of Mercer Island and ask them to tax themselves to ‘pay for education’ and then penalize them for doing so with another tax so you can do what ‘pay for education’? The school board wrote to the legislature in February seeking relief from tolling (a tax) that could cost their employees $500,000 a year. I applaud their effort. How about letter on behalf the citizens about to be penalized millions in sales tax by WA state for voting to fund the schools in our community?

Another, albeit less direct, way citizens are asked to pay more is when developers put demands on our infrastructure. Builders are rightly asked to help pay for the costs of new schools, roads etc., but did you know that in a big city like Seattle or Issaquah they are allowed to use the cost of new schools, and we are only allowed to charge for portables when assessing these impact fees.  How is that fair to a small town like ours that builds schools much less frequently?  We also get a pittance, compared to other districts, in state funds to build our schools. Do our citizens not pay state taxes?

When I asked Mayor Bassett what the city council could do to lobby the legislature on our citizens behalf on these issues, I got that ‘tilting at windmills look’ and he suggested I talk to our new representative/council member (aka my opponent). When will our council members learn to be proactive not reactive in defending our city against unfair taxes and regulations? Do we always have to fill the room ala I90 tolling to get them to actually represent our best interests, to fight on our behalf? 

Speaking of what the City could do on behalf of our citizens. How about relief from regulations like permeability that could cost us millions on construction of the middle school alone. Why wasn’t this addressed before the vote to place the bond on the ballot? The lower the cost of the bond the more likely it will be supported. I suspect from comments made by deputy mayor Grausz during discussions on expanding the MIYFS thrift store (also seeking permeability relief) that they didn’t want citizens to become more aware and complain of double standards before this election.

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