Divided council rejects Spokane tab tax

Spokane’s car owners won’t have to pay an extra tax to help pay for streets. After months of debate, the Spokane City Council on Monday rejected a $20 annual fee on vehicle tabs. Council members Bob Apple, Steve Corker, Nancy McLaughlin and Jon Snyder voted against the tax. Council members Richard Rush, Joe Shogan and Amber Waldref supported it. The outcome was affected by a vote earlier in the evening on a plan to require 10 percent of the revenue of a tab tax to be devoted to sidewalk and other pedestrian construction projects. That proposal failed also on a 3-4 vote. Rush, Snyder and Waldref supported the proposal. Snyder said after the meeting that he couldn’t support the fee once it was determined that none of it could be used for sidewalks. “I’m not creating any more pots of money in this city that exclude the 15 percent or so of our citizens that don’t own or drive cars,” Snyder said. Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said in an interview before the meeting that she would support creation of the fee, no matter how the council voted on the sidewalk issue.