Spokane Valley residents comment on proposed utility tax

The presidential election didn’t stop many angry Spokane Valley residents from showing up at the City Council to let elected officials know just how they felt about the proposed 6 percent utility tax.

Some had just learned about the proposed tax because letters from their water districts alerted them. They said they were surprised that it wasn’t just water that could be taxed, but also sewer, natural gas, garbage and power.

“I was never notified of any of this,” said David Colombo, holding up a copy of the agenda for the evening. “Whoever sends out notifications should be fired.”

Initially, a public hearing and first reading for the proposed utility tax ordinance was scheduled for Tuesday evening, but after pressure from businesses and residents over the weekend, the first reading was postponed.

That confused some who left early believing they wouldn’t get to speak.

About two dozen Spokane Valley residents addressed the council, and only one – former City Councilman Bill Gothmann – said the utility tax was a good idea. Everyone else was opposed to the tax, including six comments that had been submitted via email.

“I didn’t know anything about this until I heard from my utility companies,” Byron Sinclair said. “I think you should look for other ways in which to generate revenue.” Sinclair said he didn’t feel like the council had explored all its options.

Longtime Spokane Valley neighborhood activist Mary Pollard called the proposed tax an “overreaching scandalous type of thing” and said it would hurt people on fixed incomes.

Neal Sullivan pleaded with the council to at least implement the tax gradually.

“This is a huge increase all of a sudden,” Sullivan said. “Please consider doing 1 percent the first year, 2 percent the second year and so on.”

The new utility tax would replace dwindling tax revenue coming in from a 6 percent utility tax on phone lines that has been used to finance street maintenance. The phone tax would go away if the new tax is approved.

The city projects it needs between $6.1 million and $6.4 million to preserve and maintain its roads, but annual revenue from the phone tax has fallen from about $3 million in 2009 to $2.3 million and is expected to continue declining because households are reducing their number of phone lines. The estimated revenue of a 6 percent utility tax would be $7.7 million.

The City Council has the authority to adopt a utility tax of up to 6 percent without a public vote, and there are no statutory limits on how utility tax revenues may be spent.