FOLLOWUP: City heating-oil tax pushed back one year

| Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

The city’s new heating-oil tax – approved last year in hopes people would be encouraged to switch to cleaner heat – won’t take effect for at least another year. The City Council voted this afternoon to push it back because of the pandemic economic crunch. The 23-cents-a-gallon tax was supposed to start next month; instead, the council wants the Office of Sustainability and Environment to report next June on a number of related issues including “feedback from key stakeholders about whether the effective date of the Heating Oil Tax should be September 1, 2021, or if an additional delay is recommended due to economic conditions (and) the status of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The city estimates about 17,000 households still use heating oil. Much of the tax proceeds are supposed to go toward covering the cost of conversion for low-income households and expanding rebates available to others.

John August 17, 2020 (8:34 pm)

This is a tax that disproportionately affects the poor and the elderly. It costs thousands to get a new furnace installed/removing the old one and can cost even more to remove the oil tank. And God help you if the tank leaked. And if you don’t already have gas hooked up to your house you have to pay for that hookup as well

WSB August 17, 2020 (8:50 pm)

The idea was more, switching to electric.
- John August 17, 2020 (10:25 pm)
  
  Even if that’s the case it disproportionately affects the poor and elderly because of the costs I already stated
bolo August 18, 2020 (11:24 am)

“And God help you if the tank leaked.”
So you are saying that it’s better to let the tank keep leaking into the environment?

1994 August 17, 2020 (9:53 pm)

That’s right, tax happy city council plans to tax people out of their heating…..”The 23-cents-a-gallon tax was supposed to start next month”. Good they delayed this, and maybe won’t implement it if they are smart. “Much of the tax proceeds are supposed to go toward covering the cost of conversion for low-income households and expanding rebates available to others.” Large numbers of people probably don’t qualify for low-income status, but earning $55,000 to $75,000 a year is an exercise in scrimping and stretching your money in Seattle. For home owners in that income range, average property taxes of $4000 to $6000 is a lot of money.

DRC August 18, 2020 (7:00 am)

You are so right,she doesn’t care

Eric1 August 17, 2020 (10:46 pm)

Another stupid tax by the city. Are the 17,000 of 283,000 households (wiki) or about 6% really worth a city bill, accounting and tracking? They don’t like natural gas (by PSE) and obviously prefer “green” electricity since it is a monopoly by SCL. Except the “green” electricity we get is from dams and wind turbines which aren’t the most eco-friendly ways to get electricity (ask the fish and birds). Personally I have solar on my house but that was under a city incentive to do that (regardless of income). PSE has rebates for gas/electric conversions but only in Seattle can they penalize you and laugh all the way to the bank. It always starts as the “feel good” tax on everybody that the city supposedly gives to the poor. Remember the soda tax? How has that worked out? Oh yeah, the city diverted the soda tax to the general fund because there was “extra money”. LOL…. Shouldn’t it just have gone to more healthy programs? Nope, just like school speeding zone tickets. Safe streets for kids until we need the money for the bums downtown.

Joseph August 18, 2020 (1:31 am)

This ridiculous, regressive tax is yet another reason to recall Lisa Herbold. I’m glad her recall effort is strongly underway.

WSB August 18, 2020 (7:20 am)

No, a recall effort is NOT underway. I checked with King County Elections late yesterday and the actual process – which does not involve an online petition of any kind – has not been initiated by anyone. Story to come.
- Mark Schletty August 18, 2020 (8:20 am)
  
  Just to let people know, there is a recall petition by Change.org. being signed now. It had over 1000 signatures several days ago. I don’t know if this petition is considered “real” by the County, but it exists.
  - WSB August 18, 2020 (10:07 am)
    
    That’s what I am referring to, and why I am working on a story. There is a very specific recall process and the county elections dept says no one has initiated it, yet.
- emy August 18, 2020 (8:45 am)
  
  Well lets get the ball rolling
- Joseph August 18, 2020 (12:56 pm)
  
  I signed the petition yesterday along with over 2000 others. It’s underway, official or not.
  - WSB August 18, 2020 (1:27 pm)
    
    See our other story. Unless someone pursues the legsl process, which so far no one has, no, it’s not. An online petition doesn’t count. It’s really important for people yo know that if they are sincerely interested in a recall.

Chris August 18, 2020 (4:45 am)

Thank you 1994. Very well said. We tried to convert our 1908 house & were met with challenges & costs we were unable to deal with. Our tank is above ground and we make sure it is kept in excellent shape. We keep our oil usage low to save $. We were not looking forward to the 23-cents a gallon tax, however we will just have to budget for it. 1994 said it well for us.

Donna August 18, 2020 (9:49 am)

Last week we had our new ductless heat pump installed. We have a small house and already had a small heat pump in the bedroom and the new tax motivated us to do the conversion. We had always talked about doing it “when we decide to replace the furnace.” Looks like we could have chosen to wait another year. Just so folks have an idea of the cost, with a $1500 rebate and after taxes it was about $7500. Greenwood offered us a 36 mos. 0% interest rate on $6000 of that. We haven’t yet explored decommissioning the old tank. It’s in our basement, not underground, and I’m hoping it will fall into the $600-$1200 guesstimate we were told. The good news is that apparently we actually have a few (several?) years to do that in the city’s conversion carrot and stick plan so then it won’t be an immediate whack to the budget.

Sarchka August 18, 2020 (10:01 am)

I’m sure it’s been said before but I’ll say it again. They need a better plan. I’m all for going oil free but the rebates for a new electric / heat pump system are nothing compared to the full cost of converting. I looked into all kinds of options and in the end just stuck with the oil; I hate it but it’s still working fine and I’ll just eat the tax because it is cheaper than converting. The number of people who will qualify for the subsidy is really low % of those still using oil. And, it’s still a pain to convert – not everyone has the time and ability to go through with it let alone the $. There’s gotta be a better plan, council members….

Jort August 18, 2020 (10:30 am)

I’ll bet a lot of folks who are outraged and incensed by the now-delayed fuel oil tax also (rightly) think climate change is a critical, once-in-a-generation priority. Here is where we see another example of the subtle hypocrisy of Seattle’s alleged progressive values. Want another example? Our city’s insistence on prioritizing personal automobiles as a transportation method, even though automobiles are the least equitable, least sustainable and (this is a fact, not opinion) greatest single source of carbon emissions in the city. But we’re environmentalists and love orcas, right?!

dcn August 18, 2020 (2:49 pm)

I wrote this letter to the Seattle Times last fall when the tax was first passed. They published an edited version of it:

“Nobody wants to heat their home with oil. Those of us who do probably can’t afford to convert or we would have already done so. Seattle’s newly approved tax of 23.6 cents per gallon on heating oil is going to create a hardship on low-mid income people.

If you own a home with an oil furnace, it’s an old house that needs a lot of maintenance. Replacing old pipes, wiring, roofs, cracked foundations, etc., is the reality of owning an older home. Even with the rebate, I cannot afford to replace my oil furnace with gas or electric anytime soon due more pressing house repairs.

This new tax will cost me much more each winter to heat my home—money that could have been spent on home repairs, including saving to replace my oil furnace.

It is draconian for Seattle to pay for the lowest income residents to upgrade by heavily taxing people just one step up on the income ladder.

This is no soda tax. Heat is a necessity. In a state with the most regressive tax structure in the nation, Seattle’s steep tax on oil heat is the most regressive policy yet.”

I am very glad they are delaying the oil heat tax. Converting my house to electric heat would be very expensive, since I also have 1950’s wiring in my house. I can’t even run a window or portable A/C unit due to the lack of electrical capacity in my house.

1994 August 18, 2020 (9:09 pm)

Well written! Thanks for sending to the Seattle Times. More of us need to protest the tax happy city council’s tax plans for us…money doesn’t grow on trees and they should know that.

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