Wash. cities weigh warehouse dock door tax
In a move that could be a harbinger of future efforts by cash-strapped local governments to pay for growing infrastructure costs, three Washington state cities are looking at imposing an annual tax on warehouse loading docks.
A proposal by the City of Fife, a distribution hub for the Port of Tacoma, could see an annual $100-per-dock door tax charged to more than 2,000 warehouse dock doors in the city. The estimated $200,000 to be raised by the tax each year would be used to offset the roughly $800,000 the city expects to spend over the next seven years to resurface nearly 12 miles of truck routes within the city.
The city has been looking to alternative taxes since losing sales tax revenue after a state change in the way sales taxes are collected that took affect in July 2008. The change, which now bases sales tax on where a buyer lives instead of where a purchase is made, is expected to cost Fife about $500,000 a year.
The proposed would be charged on every dock door over two operated by a business. The city estimates the proposed tax would affect 2,022 of the city's 2,247 dock doors.
In addition to the Fife proposal, which is still working its way through the city council, the cities of Sumner and Auburn are reportedly considering similar moves. The Auburn City Council has indicated it may take up the dock door tax issue by early March. Auburn, located about 10 miles east of the Tacoma port, has roughly 3,000 dock doors and is also home to one of Boeing's major aircraft plants. Sumner, located about 35 miles from Seattle, is home to numerous distribution centers.
In 2007, the Washington state legislature considered imposing a statewide $50-per-TEU tax that could have added an estimated $40 million to $50 million to state coffers each year. Following opposition from the Alaska and Hawaii legislatures and numerous industry groups, the tax proposal was dropped in lieu of a feasibility study of the tax impacts.
A statewide container tax proposal in California failed to be implemented for the third time last year following an 11th-hour veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.