Arts & Entertainment Community Government

Gig Harbor City Council expresses formal support for Cultural Access tax

The Gig Harbor City Council voted at its Sept. 8 meeting to express its support of a proposed Cultural Access Tax that will appear on November’s ballot.

Nearly all councilmembers voted to express support for the resolution. Only Councilmember Le Rodenberg abstained. The council unanimously voted in July to send the measure to voters.

If voters pass the measure in November, the Cultural Access Tax will increase the city’s sales and use tax by 0.1%. The revenue will go towards improving public access to the city’s nonprofit arts, culture, science, and history programs.

Comments in favor

Before the vote, several people spoke in favor of the Cultural Access Tax.

Shannon Perry, president of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra Board, spoke in favor of the resolution. She said that, as a nonprofit, particularly with emergency COVID funding going away, “it’s just really hard to keep our doors open, but it really is about the kids.”

“I’m a parent with children in the program, so I’m there at all of our practices,” she continued. “I’m there at string camp, and I can tell you how much of an impact this really does have on the youth in the area. So it’s a great town to be part of, and I’m really thankful to be here.”

Harbor History Museum Director Stephanie Lile also spoke in favor of the measure. She led the committee to write the statement in support of the ballot measure that will appear in the election pamphlet.

“It may not seem like it on the very surface, but arts, culture, science, and history are essential. Humans are imbued with the need to create, to inquire, to innovate, to make music, to write,” she said. “These programs provided by local nonprofits are often the first spark for future inventors, environmental scientists, filmmakers, historians, detectives, engineers, and designers. Without these essential organizations, the learning opportunities they provide for people of all ages, we become a closed and stagnant society.”

Two other Gig Harborites also spoke in favor of the measure.

Council limitations

City Clerk Josh Stecker noted that, while the resolution is the “council’s opportunity to formally state its support for the passage of that proposition … council is limited once an item is placed on the ballot. They cannot undertake any activity to support or oppose a proposition, except for in this one peculiar instance.”

Stecker also noted that this is typical for resolutions the council passes: First, the council places an item on the ballot, and then, if it chooses to, expresses its support for the resolution at a different meeting. The city has done this with other ballot measures, too, such as measures supporting the Gig Harbor Fire Department and the Peninsula School District.