Does A Tax Reduction Make Any Real Difference To You?
Gov. Mike Lowry, who once dismissed a tax-cut proposal by saying it wouldn’t give the average family more than a pizza a week, vetoed $271 million worth of tax reductions last week.
The governor had said much of the Legislature’s $501 million tax-cut package would provide no real stimulus to the state economy. Easy for him to say - he hadn’t faced the anti-government, anti-tax uprising that had elected those tax-cutting lawmakers last fall.
What about it? What difference does a property tax reduction - even a slight one - mean to you? For that matter, how does the current tax load affect your decisions about special levies and other property tax requests when they appear on the ballot?
Send me your responses, using any of the methods explained below, by Wednesday. I’ll include representative comments in Thursday’s “Bagpipes.”
Never a parking place when you need one
If you’ve been in Spokane longer than 48 hours, you know the landmark Davenport Hotel has been closed for years. There is no mad scramble for taxis at its Sprague Avenue entrance.
Even so, parking spots along that block are reserved for cabs.
Bruce Steele, Spokane city traffic department manager, said it has occurred to him over the years to eliminate the taxi stalls, but it never became a priority.
Now, as the opening of the Spokane Transit Authority’s nearby bus Plaza nears, the city plans to open the block for parking. (Steele says the action is unrelated to the stink a parker raised last week after getting a ticket there.)
Downtown parking has been a sore issue for years, especially among retailers who compete with shopping malls and their acres of free parking.
Three years ago, the city removed 300 meter heads to try to lure shoppers. Now, saying downtown employees have commandeered those spots, the city wants to restore the meter heads.
But through all these discussions, a block of spots for taxis to serve nonexistent guests of a closed hotel has been ignored.
What else is the city overlooking? Share your suggestions with “Bagpipes,” with other readers and even with City Hall.
Help set the agenda
Keep a step ahead of the candidates. By phone, fax, e-mail or snail mail, add the issues you care about to the list “Bagpipes” is compiling.
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond to issues raised on Tuesdays: Call 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to celh27b@prodigy.com. Representative replies appear Thursdays. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.