Posted March 24, 2017 1:51 pm by Comments

By Chris Eger

Seattle City Council Member Tim Burgess, pushed a gun tax in 2015 that did not live up to its expected revenue projection the first year. (Photo: Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times)
A 2015 tax on guns and ammo that triggered an ongoing lawsuit earned significantly less than what lawmakers expected.
The measure, introduced by City Council President Tim Burgess, was expected to garner as much as $500,000 through a $25 assessment on each modern firearm and up to 5 cents on each round of ammunition sold by retailers in the city. However, the Seattle Times reports the tax generated less than half of that figure.
“During its first year, the firearms and ammunition tax payments received by the City were less than $200,000,” Burgess wrote in an email.
The news comes after months of sandbagging requests from gun rights groups and local media on the figures, contending release of the data could reveal the identity of individual taxpayers and how much they paid, which is protected information under state law.
The tax which was billed as the city’s solution to the $17 million in medical costs from 253 gunshot victims at Harborview Medical Center in 2014, which Seattle underwrites with public funds and was passed

Source: Guns.com

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