After seemingly hours of public testimony from numerous businesses, but some residents of Fife too, the City Council voted 5 against and two for the proposed Ord. 1693 for a loading dock door tax.
That action should end the threat, but engenders an appeal from the Mayor and Councilmembers to the business community to work together with them in developing an answer to the deteriorating road infrastructure.
Testimony by many centered around the unfair nature of a tax on loading dock doors to address road condition charged by many to be caused by transitory traffic between the Port of Tacoma's terminals and warehousing in the Valley cities (like Sumner, Orting, Auburn, etc.). Local Fife businesses complained of being singled out to pay for impacts of businesses located in other cities either locally or across the country.
The Council toyed with the idea of extending the effective date of the tax to January 1, 2011 in order to compel local businesses to remain involved in a discussion and resolution group. In the end, the discriminatory nature of the proposal overcame a perceived need to hold businesses hostage to an impending tax. Instead, many of the Councilmembers issued an appeal to business to help resolve how to fund commercial arterials without an identified funding source.
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