City of Olympia v. Drebick

¶22 (dissenting) — The city of Olympia (City) claims the fees at issue here “are, in essence, excise taxes on new development generally. . . ”8 “because the ultimate purpose of the fees is to generally raise revenue to fund needed public facilities and infrastructure.”9 I agree. The resulting problem for the City is therefore twofold: (1) the City has not been statutorily authorized to impose an excise tax on new development and (2) the City has been specifically prohibited by RCW 82.02.020 from doing just that. To put it simply, the only way these fees could pass statutory, much less…