Port Angeles residents will soon be voting on Transportation Benefit District Proposition No. 1 to increase the sales tax in Port Angeles by 0.2 percent to fix our roads.
I think you might agree that these roads need to be fixed.
This is not a big tax increase.
On a $10 taxable sale, it is 2 cents.
This sales tax increase will generate about $700,000 per year.
Everybody would pay this, including Clallam County and Sequim residents, along with tourists.
This reduces the burden on Port Angeles residents.
Personally, I spent about $41,000 in 2016.
I estimate that about $16,000 of that was taxable.
Well, $16,000 times 0.2 percent is $32.
Remember what is not taxable: groceries, house payments, insurance, taxes, medical and a lot more.
If this sales tax increase fails, the city’s only real option is to enact a $20 tax on car tabs, which they can do without a vote of the people.
That will generate about $350,000 per year, about half of what the sales tax would generate.
That’s not enough money to get the job done.
And it would be paid only by Port Angeles residents.
I have two vehicles.
So I’d pay more money with the car tab tax than I would with the sales tax increase, yielding half as much money to fix the roads.
That’s a bad bet.
It simply is not reasonable to vote no on this sales tax increase.
Vote yes.
Charles A. Brown,
Port Angeles