Now that getting rid of the "Head Tax"  is an issue in this 2009 local election season, I've been wondering where City Council Member and mayoral candidate Jan Drago stood on the issue.

(The head tax is a $25 tax on businesses for every employee that doesn't take public transit or bike or walk to work. The money, about $4.5 million a year, goes to fund transportation projects.)

Drago is the council transportation chair, and she was also the lead sponsor of the tax in 2006 .

I called Drago's office this morning, and Drago staffer Katherine Fountain Mackinnon reports: "She does support removing the tax."

However, Mackinnon says her boss also believes it's "key to transportation projects" and so Drago is formally asking Seattle transportation department (SDOT) director Grace Crunican to come to the July 7 transportation committee meeting to explain how the department will make up the estimated loss of $50 million over ten years to pay for projects that are in the pipeline.

Drago, Mackinnon says, is set on ending the head tax, but insists that SDOT must find the money—without harming other projects—to cover all costs.

Here's Drago's letter to Crunican, which went out yesterday.