Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

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Jered
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Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by Jered »

Story here
The City of Seattle on Monday afternoon confirmed what had long been suspected by Second Amendment advocates, that their so-called “gun violence tax” had pulled in far less than originally projected, a total of $103,766.22 for all of 2016.
When the city council hastily adopted the gun tax two years ago, then-Council President Tim Burgess projected revenues ranging from $300,000 to $500,000.
But wait! It gets better!
(The city’s) recalcitrance will result in city taxpayers paying gun advocates $35,000 in legal fees.” That doesn’t include the penalty against the city for withholding the information, he added.
So, they've netted $68,766.22.

And there's still going to be a penalty for not complying with the public records request.

:lol: :lol:
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
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First Shirt
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by First Shirt »

It would be nice if they'd pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact, and do away with the whole mess, but since they don't seem to be that smart, making them pay for their stupidity seems to be the next best option. As Napoleon opined, "Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake."

I hope it costs them more than they ever expected to gain in revenue!
But there ain't many troubles that a man caint fix, with seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six."
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MiddleAgedKen
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

Hey, if it prices one poor person out of the gun market.... (spit)
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randy
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by randy »

Jered wrote:So, they've netted $68,766.22.

And there's still going to be a penalty for not complying with the public records request.

:lol: :lol:
That's assuming that there are no other structural or hidden costs (such as collection of the tax, bookkeeping, printing new forms, etc.). I suspect the true net income is far less. If they dedicated more than 2 city employees worth of time to this effort, they probably are running at a loss.

Not that deficit spending ever bothered any government, particularly leftists.
...even before I read MHI, my response to seeing a poster for the stars of the latest Twilight movies was "I see 2 targets and a collaborator".
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Weetabix
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by Weetabix »

randy wrote:If they dedicated more than 2 city employees worth of time to this effort, they probably are running at a loss.
If revenue is the goal, then yes. But increasing the bureaucracy is always a net win for them. The [strike]suckers[/strike] voters will always pay for it.
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Kommander
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by Kommander »

This case and those like it are why there need to be real costs to the government employees themselves for disregarding the law like this. Sure they will find the city, but that's just tax payer money. The real entity that should be being fined is the city employees who thought this kind of thing is ok. Let them pay the fine out of their own pocket, not the taxpayers.

What I would really like to see is elected government officials being permanently barred from office if the Supreme Court rules that a law they passed or signed was unconstitutional.
Precision
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by Precision »

Kommander wrote:This case and those like it are why there need to be real costs to the government employees themselves for disregarding the law like this. Sure they will find the city, but that's just tax payer money. The real entity that should be being fined is the city employees who thought this kind of thing is ok. Let them pay the fine out of their own pocket, not the taxpayers.

What I would really like to see is elected government officials being permanently barred from office if the Supreme Court rules that a law they passed or signed was unconstitutional.
Florida gun law under pre-emption has a part that says any voting official who votes or a law that is found to be contrary to State wide pre-emption, is PERSONALLY responsible for the costs associated with the law. To include, legal fees, penalties cost for opposition legal fees... It specifically bars public funds from paying. If public (tax payer) funds are used, those authorizing that are guilty of a felony.
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Jered
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by Jered »

Here's a reddit thread on this.

From preciseshooter:
We don't have the numbers for full 2016 because we only opened in Lynnwood in March. But for the year starting in March through February 2017, inclusive, we paid Lynnwood (and therefore did not pay Seattle - these are strictly local taxes, not the state taxes) $52671.44.
For the first half of 2017 we paid Lynnwood $33234.79.
In terms of sales of guns to Seattle residents, we have sold 781 guns to Seattle residents from 3/2015-10/2015 when we operated in Seattle and 855 guns 3/2016-10/2016 when we operated in Lynnwood (these are the sales to residents of Seattle ZIP codes, in both cases).
For the sales at the Outdoors Emporium, I was chatting with them just after the tax was proposed and they said that they were selling between 6000 and 7000 guns a year. It looks like in 2016 the sales dropped to under 2000, which means that Seattle lost tax revenue on 4000 guns. Average price of a gun is about $500, so at 3.1% local sales tax in 2016 it looks like they lost $62000 in sales tax for just the guns - not including (probably worse) reduction in sales on ammo and itinerant items because people no longer visit the store.
So between our store and OE, it looks like the combination of sales tax losses and gun tax revenue results in a mildly negative total, probably lost the city $10-20k.
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Rich Jordan
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Re: Seattle's Gun Tax Epic Fail

Post by Rich Jordan »

I love it. I wonder how crook county is doing on its extortion taxes ($25 per gun, $0.05/round on centerfire and $0.01/round on rimfire). I pretty much stopped buying ammo in the county (rare exception at Cabelas, and I feel guilty for doing it but couldn't find specific ammo elsewhere). But I forgot about the also-included sales tax, so the decline in sales due to the tax has a larger impact than it first appeared.

We also now have a $0.01 per ounce on all "sugared beverages", whether purchased in stores or at restaurants/fast food joints, etc. Even vending machines in crook county nearly all went up $0.25 per can/bottle to cover it. Outside of a couple combo meals (a practice I'm stopping with this as an incentive) I'm buying my soda and tea 1/4 mile north in Lake county. Along with groceries. I ask every restaurant and food joint I stop at to change their sign disclosing the tax to change it to say "Crook County" (a few already have that!), and the places with combo meals to make them available with a no-drink option. St00pid crook county.
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