A day after being told a business and occupations tax bill was dead, Tri-City leaders continued efforts to get a lower tax rate applied to businesses supporting cleanup of Hanford waste.
The issue is a state law that allows businesses cleaning up waste to pay a 0.471 percent B&O tax rate.
The Department of Revenue in 2005 interpreted the law to include only businesses directly involved in cleanup – meaning businesses that provide more indirect support, such as the information technology services provided by Lockheed Martin, have to pay 1.5 percent.
But Tri-City leaders argued during a trip to Olympia this week that charging those support businesses the higher B&O tax rate takes money away from cleanup, because it all comes from the cleanup budget.
Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland, said he had little hope for passing a law to get the lower rate applied to businesses supporting cleanup this year because of the state’s budget crunch.
But on Friday, the delegation met with House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and kept pushing for the lower rate to be applied.
Chopp said he thought they had made a good case, but with a preliminary revenue forecast made Thursday showing a more than $8 billion revenue shortfall for the remainder of this biennium and the two-year budget cycle in 2009-11, chances are slim for taking any action that might cost the state revenue.
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