Spokane Valley council passes symbolic prohibition on income tax

Spokane Valley City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to prohibit any future income tax in the city, even if it becomes legal in Washington.

Spokane voters overwhelmingly approved a similar measure on Election Day.

Spokane Valley will not be able to enforce the resolution because a current council cannot tie the hands of a future governing body, but Mayor Rod Higgins said the votes means will likely be controversial if a future council tries to go against it.

“It might be partially cosmetic, but we wanted to make a firm statement,” he said.

An earlier version of the resolution said the City Council strongly opposed, rather than prohibited, the tax, but Higgins said he wanted the wording to be as strong as possible.

Higgins asked city staff to present an income tax resolution in October, as Spokane was preparing to vote on a similar initiative.

Income tax was presumed to be illegal in the state of Washington due to previous court rulings, but lawmakers in Seattle recently attempted to enact an income tax.