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The King County Sales Tax Seems Dead. What Now?
With King County Executive Dow Constantine's proposal to put a 0.2 percent sales tax on the August ballot looking all but dead, speculation has started around what might happen next. On Monday, the council will vote on Constantine's proposal, but will likely fall short of the six-vote supermajority needed to put it on the ballot (with the nine votes split along party lines).
What happens then? Well, one possibility is that the council could eliminate some property taxes that were approved by voters specifically for other purposes, and put them toward public safety instead. King County Council Republican Reagan Dunn has said he would consider repealing one of the county's special-purpose taxes, such as the real-estate excise tax, the parks-expansion levy, the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) levy, the conservation-futures tax, or the mental-illness and drug-dependency sales tax and putting that money toward public safety.
Although other council members, including some Democrats, may be amenable to some of those ideas as a revenue stopgap, each one, obviously, has its proponents. For example, a move by former King County Executive Kurt Triplett to slash the AFIS levy, which helps law-enforcement officers rapidly identify fingerprints, failed last year, and parks and open space have a vocal backer in County Council member Larry Phillips, potentially scratching conservation futures (a voter-approved property tax that pays for open space), the real-estate excise tax (which funds open space and parks in unincorporated King County) and the parks-expansion levy (another voter-approved tax that pays for new parks).
Constantine's office said only that we should watch what happens on Monday, and Dunn, Republican Kathy Lambert, and Democratic County Council chair Bob Ferguson have not returned calls. However, Phillips says he would rather see county taxes currently dedicated to roads—the so-called unincorporated areas levy—go to public safety than lose parks funding. And he says the reason parks are funded with levy money now is that "years ago, in a very painful decision, we m oved for the second-largest parks system in the state of Washington, which all of us enjoy, out of the general fund to make way for law, safety and justice. ... Now you're saying, we want that money too, to pay for this very expensive sheriff's system that we can't really afford? I have a problem with parks levy money being spent like that."
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr and other county public-safety officials have said that without additional tax revenue, they will have to cut 82 sheriff's deputies, stop investigating property crimes, stop providing officers in public schools, cut 36 prosecuting attorneys, and eliminate funding for alternatives to jail for juveniles and adults, among other things. Phillips counters that if the sheriff's office hadn't promised deputies 5 percent raises a year over five years, they wouldn't be in this predicament.
The council meets Monday at 1:00 pm in King County Council Chambers, 516 Third Ave., 10th floor.
What happens then? Well, one possibility is that the council could eliminate some property taxes that were approved by voters specifically for other purposes, and put them toward public safety instead. King County Council Republican Reagan Dunn has said he would consider repealing one of the county's special-purpose taxes, such as the real-estate excise tax, the parks-expansion levy, the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) levy, the conservation-futures tax, or the mental-illness and drug-dependency sales tax and putting that money toward public safety.
Although other council members, including some Democrats, may be amenable to some of those ideas as a revenue stopgap, each one, obviously, has its proponents. For example, a move by former King County Executive Kurt Triplett to slash the AFIS levy, which helps law-enforcement officers rapidly identify fingerprints, failed last year, and parks and open space have a vocal backer in County Council member Larry Phillips, potentially scratching conservation futures (a voter-approved property tax that pays for open space), the real-estate excise tax (which funds open space and parks in unincorporated King County) and the parks-expansion levy (another voter-approved tax that pays for new parks).
Constantine's office said only that we should watch what happens on Monday, and Dunn, Republican Kathy Lambert, and Democratic County Council chair Bob Ferguson have not returned calls. However, Phillips says he would rather see county taxes currently dedicated to roads—the so-called unincorporated areas levy—go to public safety than lose parks funding. And he says the reason parks are funded with levy money now is that "years ago, in a very painful decision, we m oved for the second-largest parks system in the state of Washington, which all of us enjoy, out of the general fund to make way for law, safety and justice. ... Now you're saying, we want that money too, to pay for this very expensive sheriff's system that we can't really afford? I have a problem with parks levy money being spent like that."
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr and other county public-safety officials have said that without additional tax revenue, they will have to cut 82 sheriff's deputies, stop investigating property crimes, stop providing officers in public schools, cut 36 prosecuting attorneys, and eliminate funding for alternatives to jail for juveniles and adults, among other things. Phillips counters that if the sheriff's office hadn't promised deputies 5 percent raises a year over five years, they wouldn't be in this predicament.
The council meets Monday at 1:00 pm in King County Council Chambers, 516 Third Ave., 10th floor.
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