TGM and the Second Amendment Foundation have prevailed in a lawsuit seeking “gun tax” revenue from the Cith f Seattle. (Dave Workman photo)
By TGM staff
A King County, WA Superior Court judge on Friday ruled in favor of the Second Amendment Foundation and TGM Senior Editor Dave Workman in a lawsuit against the City of Seattle over violation of the Public Records Act (PRA).
Workman called it a win for the First Amendment and the public’s right to know.
“For me, this was always a First Amendment issue,” he said. “The city adopted a controversial tax for questionable reasons, and the public has a right to know how much the city collected.”
In the Spring of 2016, Workman filed a PRA request with the city, seeking the first quarter revenue from a controversial “gun violence tax” that was hastily passed by the city council and signed by anti-gun Mayor Ed Murray.
Dave Workman
The tax levies $25 on the sale of each firearm, plus five cents on each centerfire cartridge and two cents on every rimfire cartridge. The city was sued in late December 2015 by SAF, the National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation and two Seattle firearms retailers, Outdoor Emporium and Precise Shooter. It is the first time that SAF, NRA and NSSF have joined forces in a lawsuit.
When it was originally adopted, proponents of the tax predicted that it would raise between $300,000 and a half-million dollars. That money would ostensibly go to finance “gun violence research” and prevention efforts.
Instead of disclosing how much had actually been collected, the city declined to provide the information, arguing that disclosure would violate the privacy rights of individual taxpayers. Workman submitted a revised request, asking only for an aggregate figure, not the individual tax payments from firearms retailers. The city again refused to provide the data, so Workman and SAF filed the lawsuit.
Earlier this year, the city attempted to satisfy the complaint by announcing that it had collected “less than $200,000” for the entire year of 2016, which was well short of the projection. But how short did not become apparent until this past Spring, when the largest remaining retailer, Outdoor Emporium, revealed that it was paying the lion’s share of the tax, approximately 80 percent. That would put the tax revenue ceiling much closer to $100,000, a far cry from the original prediction. Ultimately, the city revealed that its tax had collected less than $104,000 during the first year.
Judge Lori K. Smith issued her decision from the bench, according to Seattle attorney Steven Fogg, who represented the plaintiffs. She held that the city had not acted in bad faith, so a nominal penalty was assessed. But Fogg said via e-mail that “Judge Smith’s ruling establishes that the City should have disclosed the information to the public when we asked for it. By fighting us needlessly, they now have to pay a penalty and our attorney fees, not to mention their own attorney time (they had two City attorneys assigned to this).”
The lawsuit was filed in September of last year.
Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, contended that the real reason the city was reluctant to disclose the revenue figure was because it fell far short of the revenue forecast.
“We are delighted with the outcome of this case,” said Gottlieb, who is also TGM publisher. “It was silly for Seattle to withhold this information, but we’re pretty certain why the city did it. The council was told that this tax could generate between $300,000 and a half-million dollars, but now it appears the city has collected just over $100,000, which is an embarrassing shortfall.
“As a result,” he added, “the city has essentially lost money on this scheme because now they have to pay our attorney fees, plus a small penalty. On top of that, the city has lost tax revenue because one major gun dealer has moved out of the city and another has reported considerable sales losses. That is tax money the city will never realize.”
