Public Safety Sales Tax and Community Safety Campus
At a glance
What: Ordinance C36949 implements the state public safety funding program by adopting a 0.1 percent local option sales and use tax (RCW 82.14.345) to establish a community safety campus, integrate behavioral health into public safety systems and improve emergency preparedness.
Where it stands: Passed 6-1 on October 14. It is adopted in the municipal code, not placed on a ballot, so a future Council could redirect the money to other eligible public safety programs.
Next: One member said she will ask departments for quarterly reviews of how the money is spent.
Details
Built from the Whisper speech-to-text transcript of the October 14 Legislative Meeting; names and numbers may be misheard.
Supporters said the tax would pay for the campus (consolidating courts, community court and city public safety functions now in county-owned space, which they called costly and dilapidated), behavioral health clinicians on 911 dispatch and longer-hours crisis response, and more emergency management capacity. They said groceries and prescriptions are exempt, that the state law's requirements are why it has no sunset, and that sales taxes are regressive but the City has few other revenue tools. A price of about 18 million dollars for the building was mentioned (as transcribed).
One member who voted no objected that the public was not asked to buy in (an advisory ballot was suggested), that the tax has no sunset and so no forced accountability, that existing revenues already fund parts of the 911 system, and that the General Fund faces deficits and other tax measures are coming to voters.
Ordinance C36949 passed 6-1 after extended Council discussion of the campus, 911 clinicians, affordability, the lack of a sunset and the choice not to refer it to voters.