Faced with the worst economic and social crisis in generations the Port Townsend City Council met to work on a recovery plan that would slash the costs of doing business and creating jobs, cut taxes to make housing more affordable for those getting by on less, and other bold, but necessary measures to reduce government’s footprint on industry, commerce and consumers.

If only.

No, the PT City Council spent its weekly meeting discussing CO2 emissions and raising taxes.

City Councilor Amy Howard wants to raise taxes on “the ownership class.”  Other city councilors echoed her call, because it would give the city funds to turn around and spend “creatively” on new programs to help people whose taxes they just raised.

CUTTING CO2

Council spent the first half of its April 13, 2020 workshop hearing from the Climate Action Committee on how Port Townsend and Jefferson County are doing in reducing CO2 emissions. More than a decade ago local leaders set a target of reducing county-wide CO2 emissions to less than 80% of 1990 levels. (Whether those goals were set arbitrarily and on the basis of theories and computer models which have been shown to be wrong is a subject for another article. I have written previously about Jefferson County’s fake climate emergency, here, here and here).

Councilors were told that Jefferson County is nearly halfway there, thanks mostly to technological innovations and substantial expenditures by the Port Townsend Paper Company and the transition by PUD to hydroelectric power from coal-generated electricity.

But Council and the Climate Action Committee expressed concern that people are driving more, and with more people driving more, CO2 emissions from transportation have increased. They are also concerned with what Jefferson County residents buy. The Climate Action Committee counts in the Jefferson County CO2 assessment the greenhouse gases it estimates were emitted in producing everything we purchase and consume.

So, if a Jefferson County resident buys a Tesla, they count the greenhouse gas emissions generated by unregulated cobalt mining in the Congo and rare earths in Third World nations, shipping the ore to China and Europe where it is smelted and processed, the emissions generated in shipping raw materials to a Tesla factory by boat, truck and rail, the CO2 emissions that were generated in building that factory and the CO2 emitted in manufacturing plastics, glass, steel, copper, rubber, vinyl and chrome–all the CO2 emissions it takes to turn raw materials into a shiny $100,000 Tesla (and maybe the CO2 emissions generated in earning that hundred grand). They then estimate the greenhouse gas emissions behind the parking lot built for the Tesla employees and what they emit commuting to and from work, the greenhouse gas emissions emitted by Elon Musk as he travels the world in private jets attending global warming conferences, lobbying for government subsidies and mandates and meeting with Chinese officials in Shanghai office buildings powered by massive coal pollution in rooms with furniture built in Chinese factories powered by coal pollution…..

Or something like that. They have software and models, you know. The result is that the Climate Action Committee and City Council are concerned you are buying and using things they want you to stop buying and using because, wherever and however it was produced, it adds some numbers to their CO2 tally. We will be called upon, or compelled, to change and sacrifice even though it won’t make one bit of difference to global climate because, during Elon Musk’s meting in Shanghai, China opened three new coal-fired electricity generating plants.

The Climate Action Committee wants to add forestry to its calculus. But they did not discuss factoring in the extent to which the already miniscule CO2 emissions in Jefferson County feed and nourish the sprawling forests around us, and how much CO2 those trees soak up.

This was the discussion in a week where one of the city’s legacy businesses collapsed, other businesses are gasping for air, unemployment is soaring, despair is rising, tourism is dead, and tax revenue is shrinking.

RAISING TAXES TO SPUR RECOVERY

Council then used the second half of its workshop on an agenda item entitled “Annexation Banked Capacity Discussion.” Few people would have guessed this meant, “Raising Property Taxes, Again.”

City Manager John Mauro and Mayor Michelle Sandoval revealed internal discussions about raising taxes so city leaders could accumulate a pot of money which they could then use “creatively” to address social and economic impacts of Governor Inslee’s lock down order.

Raising general and regressive taxes during an economic downturn is a very creative idea. It is the opposite of what governments must do to keep economic recessions from turning into depressions. Keynesian stimulus calls for loosening of government controls and injecting liquidity into the economy, not sucking it out through taxes, wringing it through inefficient, time-consuming procedures, deliberations and regulations, and coming out the other end with less than went in.

Deputy Mayor David Faber was the only one who spoke clearly against raising taxes. The rest of the Council was either supportive of raising taxes (Howard, who has it in for people who own their homes), telegraphed interest (Sandoval, who wants to unleash her creative juices–see, e.g., The Cherry Street Project) or signaled at least a willingness to consider the idea. Raising property taxes will be discussed more in coming months. Hopefully the agenda will not again camouflage the issue under discussion.

Video of Council’s April 13, 2020, may be viewed here.