I received email responses from City Council members to my Kent Reporter letter to the editor (“City Council members are sellouts over B&O issue”, Aug. 24), where I pointed out the rigid refusal by a majority of the council members to imposing a B&O tax on businesses in the Valley because they are the primary users and abusers of our roads.
Council members (Dennis) Higgins and (Bill) Boyce didn’t like my portrayal of them as business-community lackeys. There has been no clear reason expressed as to why we don’t have a B&O tax in Kent. Why not? We need the revenue and homeowners are already paying more than their share.
Is it unthinkable to close down that albatross ShoWare Center until Kent’s financial standing improves?
Boyce, at the latest council meeting, seemed eager for the efficiency study to be published before the election. Is he hoping that the study results will right glowing reports about the council’s decisions to get the city back on track? What if the study suggests a B&O tax to increase revenues and temporarily close the ShoWare to stop the hemorrhaging of city funds?
Our homes are under water. We don’t need or want another property tax to add insult to injury. Spending money on a study seems frivolous. The trucks tear up the streets. There’s no dispute about that. So the business owners need to step up and pay a B&O tax.
We’re the only city around us that doesn’t have a B&O tax, and our roads are ravaged because we live right in the middle of the warehouses where those 16-wheelers are loaded and sent out on Kent’s streets. The problems with the roads can be laid at the feet of the business owners in Kent. They need to take responsibility rather than avoid it.
Homeowners don’t want to be the piggy bank because the Kent Chamber of Commerce doesn’t like the idea of the responsible parties paying up for the damage they do to our roads.
– Gill Sandra
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