Accountable To You

I listened last Monday evening as the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee spoke to the Lakewood City Council.

The committee explained that the lodging tax is a fee that municipalities collect from tourists who stay overnight in the city’s hotels and motels. 

In other words, the more tourists that visit Lakewood and stay in its motels/hotels, the more lodging tax collected.

What’s more, I learned the advisory committee gets to recommend to the City Council how the money is spent.

That’s good news, but the news just got better.

The just recently concluded Washington Legislature passed a bill (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summarry.aspx?bill=1253) which states that a city council not only must inform its lodging tax committee before it spends lodging tax dollars, but the committee must also agree to the expenditure.

As former Lakewood City Council member Walter Neary pointed out at www.electing2blog.com, the Washington State Legislature underscored that Lakewood’s citizens are as important as its elected officials.

As Neary wrote, “Citizens matter, and they particularly matter when it comes to spending tax dollars in which they have a stake.”

In other words, the accountability of elected and city officials is vital to representative and responsible governance.

Lakewood’s Lodging Tax Advisory Board now has an equal voice with the Lakewood City Council in determining how lodging fee dollars are to be used.

You matter, and the spending of your tax dollars matters. 

I believe that good city governance demands accountability – both from city and elected officials.

If I am granted the privilege of serving you on the Lakewood City Council, I will give voice to this principal of accountability.