Letter: Link tax bad business for Kennewick retailers

Here we go again, another run on our sales tax rate and still “only pennies on a $10 purchase.” As if we wouldn’t notice such a tiny amount.

But take a closer look at how those pennies add up and their effect on Kennewick’s retail economy. Let’s say you’re in the market for a car and you plan on spending $25,000. No matter where you live, if you buy it in Kennewick, the Link tax will cost you an extra fifty bucks. Not a lot of money, but it may be enough reason for people to shop elsewhere for such big-ticket items.

Their new strategy of adding a hockey rink to the plan is simply a transparent way of picking up the few hundred hockey mom votes that they lacked the last time this tax was on the ballot. What we need instead is a performing arts facility, which is exactly what some private individuals intend to do not far away.

Meanwhile, the convention center should focus on what they do best: going after small and medium-sized meetings and conventions, which is their core business. But bump up the sales tax? That does no favor to Kennewick retailers or their customers.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Letter: Link tax bad business for Kennewick retailers."