S400: A Cities Bill
< Bellevue from East Union Street in Seattle - click to enlarge; photo by Dan Bertolet >
Financially healthy cities will support a prosperous State of Washington. We need a Cities Bill that will help cities attract jobs, build infrastructure, finance affordable housing, and educate a trained work force. Cities are where most of the State’s tax revenue is raised, where 75 percent of the people live, where innovation and research take place, and where most of our poor, elderly, and disadvantaged are cared for. Cities provide the majority of the funding that supports prisons, highways, health care, and public education. Now is the time to recognize that cities are the key to a healthy statewide economy and pass a Cities Bill that will give cities the resources and tools they need, such as tax increment financing authority to attract new development, a street utility option that could support transportation solutions, and special funding options for intercity schools. We must rebuild our 250 cities, and when we do we will rebuild the economy of the State.
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Cary Bozeman, currently CEO of the Port of Bremerton, has served as mayor of Bellevue and Bremerton.
YES! I find it very frustrating that cities have their hands tied by states, which fundamentally have different priorities. It seems like the most frequent problem we run into is that we’re not allowed to tax ourselves (and just ourselves) for projects that we want and need, because people out in rural areas are anti-tax.
Yes! Yes! Our politicians have done such a great job fooling around with tax codes to produce benefits for the chosen ones. And lets have our politicians write some more laws. We all know laws produce jobs!
A very interesting and worthy site! Thank you….