HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES 1376 RESOLUTION NO. /.37 ('' ORIGINAL
WHEREAS, the steady growth of cities and towns in the State of
Washington has resulted in a new and expanding urban economy demanding
municipal services with ever-increasing costs of providing such services,
and
WHEREAS, the funds raised by the state through taxation have, by
the state legislature, been allocated largely for purposes other than
to the cities for local government services, leaving an insufficient
amount for the support of the essential services provided by local
government, which include police, fire, and health protection, sewers
and sewage treatment, street construction and maintenance, street
lighting and cleaning, parks , recreation, youth guidance, libraries,
planning, administration, housing and building codes, and zoning
controls, and
WHEREAS, the cities and towns of Washington are governed
completely by state law and can only impose taxes or make adjustments
in their tax structures by specific authority of the state legislature,
which has substantially pre-empted for state governmental services the
least onerous and the most easily collected and lucrative money sources,
to the exclusion of the cities and towns, and
WHEREAS, the 1958 report of the Tax Advisory Council, whose
members were state legislators and prominent business, banking,
professional and labor leaders appointed by the Governor of the State
of Washington on "Financing State and Local Governments in Washington"
stated that neither the cities nor the counties of the state are now
able to obtain the revenues necessary for current operations and that
additional revenues required for the cities alone to provide essential
local services is between $20, 000,000 and $25,000,000 per year , and
WHEREAS, it is imperative, in order to provide necessary and
essential local services for the cities and to meet their responsi-
bilities to their citizens, that the cities and towns of the state
be allocated a more fair and equitable share of the revenues collected
by the state for such local government purposes, which revenues, in
the first instances, are largely obtained and collected by the state
from the citizens of such cities and towns, and
WHEREAS, such continuous refusal and failure by the legislature
to provide to the cities and towns their fair share of the taxes
collected by the state leaves the cities and towns no alternative but
to secure their just and fair share thereof by initiative;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of Renton
does hereby publicly announce its support of Initiative 226 and calls
upon all citizens of the City of Renton to actively participate in the
campaign to provide mandatory allocation on a per capita basis to the
cities and towns of the state for local government purposes, 10% of all
revenues derived by the State of Washington from the retail sales and
cc~:ncnsating tax.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we, the members of the City Council
of the City of Renton hereby pledge to actively work for the passage
of Initiative 226 at the polls in November so that our citizens might
enjoy the benefits to be afforded by the additional per capita income
t:; our City.
PASSED BY THE CITY COUNCIL this 't1' day of Tune, 1966.
Relmie a son, Ci y Clerk
APPROVED BY THE MAYOR, this (t':' day of J e, 1966 .
dfte
APPROVED AS TO FORM: Donald W. Custer, Mayor
Gerard M. Shellan, City Attorney