KNDO

A new citizen group in Yakima is hoping to make it harder for city council members to raise taxes.

They’re called the Citizens for Two-Thirds. The organization started gathering signatures this week to get a new measure on November’s ballot.

They want to change Yakima’s city charter and require a two-thirds majority vote of the city council anytime they want to impose new taxes.

Right now, a simple majority vote would pass a new tax. But, under the two-thirds rule, a super majority would be required. That takes it from four council members agreeing, to five out of seven.

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The Yakima City Council held it’s first business meeting of the year Tuesday evening.  One of the most high profile issues they discussed was when the re-districting initiative would be up for vote.  They had the option of putting the issue on an April special election ballot, or let it be voted on in the August primary election. The civil rights group in favor of the redistricting wants the April date because if the measure passes, the redistricting would take place in time for the November general election…and all of the city council seats would be up for election.

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Tuesday the Yakima City Council is expected to set a date for the vote on moving to district-only voting.  If passed, the initiative would break the city into seven different voting districts and each candidate for city council would have to live in the district they represent. Voters could only vote for their district’s council member.

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Yakima is one step closer to changing the way it’s leaders are elected. As of Friday, over 500 signatures had been certified by the county auditor’s office.  Now the initiative is eligible to be on a ballot. If passed, Yakima would be divided into seven districts and city council members would have to live in the district they serve.

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