In response to the letter to the Editor published on July 8 and written by Aaron Tam: In his letter he reminded us of escalating temperatures here in our area due to global warming and making the case for us to vote for Initiative I-732.
So I went to the I-732 website to read more about what the initiative involved and to see what proposals in the initiative would address global warming and ideas about what we can do to curb global warming in our area. After reading some surprising aspects of this initiative, I wrote to the website with questions and received a reply from Quillan Robinson.
Here are excerpts from her reply to me:
“The elimination of the B&O (business and occupation) tax will slightly relieve the significant burden a carbon tax will put on manufacturers. This is to avoid “leakage” – essentially businesses moving to other cities, states, or countries.”
“Eliminating the B&O tax, lowering the sales tax, and funding the Working Families Rebate helps ease the carbon tax on businesses ….”
So it appears that the real thrust of this initiative is to eliminate the current B&O tax on businesses that own the thousands of trucks, many with railway containers on them, that ravage our streets and roads every day. The Kent Valley is the fourth largest small-manufacturing and delivery center in the whole United States.
Our valley floor is soft. Heavy 16- and 18-wheelers cause serious deterioration to streets and roads It takes a lot of money to be constantly repairing these streets and roads. Businesses should pay for what they destroy.
The B&O tax was set up to fund Kent road repair and replacement. I know the Kent Chamber of Commerce hates this tax and has always wanted the citizens in passenger cars to pay for the road repair that the trucks cause. The B&O tax department in City Hall hasn’t even been open that long, and there are still businesses that are being tracked down who haven’t paid any tax.
If you vote yes for I-732, you can expect city taxes to go way up because we will be subsidizing Sysco, Amazon, and many other big companies that use trucks that are infinitely harder on our streets and roads than passenger cars. These trucks are everywhere.
I will vote no on I-732. It’s all dressed up like a global warming party. It’s not. If the B&O is trashed, then you and I will pay the hefty bill to subsidize all the big businesses around here in the valley. Keep the B&O tax and join me in voting no on I-732 in November.
– Sandra Gill
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