The Yakima County Commissioners took a pre-emptive vote at their most recent meeting on the future possibility of a County Income Tax.  Following the City of Yakima's example, the commissioners voted 3 to 0 to prohibit any such tax in the future.  Some have criticized such actions as empty gestures given the extreme unlikelihood of Yakima residents ever voting for a locally imposed tax on income.

Others see the decision as a way to send a clear message to Yakima County business owners and to those who may be considering starting a business or moving an existing business to the County that local income taxes aren't going to be part of their financial future in the years ahead.   That's the position taken by Commissioner LaDon Linde during a phone call to News Talk KIT this morning.  Linde says recent court cases and the never-ending appetite for more tax revenue shown by other jurisdictions have moved a number of City and County officials around the state to take similar actions.

On the subject of mask and vaccine mandates and fellow Commissioner Amanda McKinney's proposed proclamation, Linde says that while her proclamation was pulled from the agenda, he believes it will be back in some form.

The State's Open Meetings laws preclude the Commissioner from speaking with each other about County business.  The three Commissioners don't even email with each other so any tweaks, changes or adjustments to proclamations or resolution have to go through a cumbersome third party process by the way the County clerk.  Linde says he wants some more time to review the proclamation.

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