Re: “Hospitals lose break, car fees rise” (TNT, 11-28).
I find all the outrage and hand-wringing over the Tacoma City Council’s decision not to include a sunset clause when increasing the business and occupation tax for MultiCare and Franciscan health systems very instructive.
We are told that increasing the B&O tax on these two large corporations should have a sunset clause as the city’s budget problems are only temporary.
I guess I missed this argument in March when the council voted to increase the sales tax by 0.1 percent and just recently approved a $20 tax on car tabs. Neither of these tax increases contains a sunset clause, and the argument for both was they are needed to cover budget shortfalls.
Evidently if you are a large corporation with lots of connections and money, you shouldn’t have to play by the same rules as the rest of us.
The council did the right thing. When or if the council determines it no longer needs the B&O tax increase, the sales tax and car tab tax increase need to go as well.
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