A plan for fixing a hole in the King County budget is on the way to the November ballot – a two-tenths of one percent sales tax increase.
The budget gap the King County Council is trying to fill rings up at $60 million. The plan is for the increase to bring in about $59 million with most directed at public safety.
The County Council voted 5-4 to send the measure to the voters. The council members voting in favor of the measure were Julia Patterson, Jan Drago, Larry Phillips, Bob Ferguson and Larry Gossett.
Dissenting councilors were Reagun Dunn, Pete von Reichbauer, Kathy Lambert and Jane Hague.
The tax increase would be in effect for three years with the county’s portion spent on the sheriff’s office, prosecutor’s office and jail services.
In a release from the County Council, Patterson said, “We’re giving voters the chance to tell us if they support public safety services provided by King County and every other city in the County.”
Dunn said Wednesday, July 21, he had proposed four separate tax neutral plans, but none were approved by the council.
The councilman said he believes the sales tax increase sent to the ballot will “hurt the economy and recovery. King County taxpayers have been taxed enough. King County has raised taxes nine times in five years and now (the county) can’t pay for public safety. I believe we have to work with what we have.”
Dunn along with Lambert had earlier proposed a tax neutral plan, which was not passed by the council. The plan increased the sales tax two-tenths of one percent, but it was offset with reductions in the parks expansion levy, the unincorporated levy, the Flood Control District and automated fingerprint identification system levies.
The tax proposal was meant to be tax neutral and it would drop the property taxes below the state mandated $5.90 cap per $1,000 of assessed value.
If the combined local property tax levies exceed the $5.90 per 1,000, state law directs county officials to eliminated junior taxing districts.
If the tax issue is not addressed, the King County Flood District could be eliminated.
