King County Council votes to raise sales tax one-tenth of one percent to help fund public-safety services; Seattle might do it too

During the session just past, the State Legislature gave local jurisdictions (via HB 2015) the option of raising their sales taxes one-tenth of one percent if the money was used for public-safety services. Today, the King County Council voted to do just that, after County Executive Shannon Braddock sent them the proposal, saying the revenue is needed to prevent cuts in such services – not just the King County Sheriff’s Office, which provides police services in unincorporated areas like White Center and Vashon Island, but also departments that serve people around the county whether or not they’re in cities, such as the jail, Superior Court, and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The council’s announcement notes that the tax increase will amount to 10 cents on a $100 purchase and promises “all revenue generated will be dedicated exclusively to maintaining and strengthening King County’s criminal justice, behavioral health, and public safety systems.” The announcement concludes:

The tax will take effect on October 1, 2025, with revenue collection beginning in January 2026. The County Executive will publish an annual public report detailing how the funds are allocated to strengthen safety and justice for all King County residents.

Cities also have the option of implementing the same sales-tax increase without sending it to voters; there’s no formal proposal in Seattle yet, but the City Council has been working on a resolution spelling out how it could be spent if it is proposed and passed, and will take that up again at a committee meeting on Thursday.

Dr Wu July 22, 2025 (7:26 pm)

A consumption tax on the poor.

EVGuy July 22, 2025 (9:10 pm)

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You may be surprised to learn that the rich actually consume too – in fact, more so than the poor! Shocking I know. The alternative to sales taxes is property taxes, which people are not happy with either. Then again, the percentage of people committing crimes and therefore incurring the costs of the criminal justice system are probably much more likely to not be property tax payers, so… guess it’s fair after all.
- WS98 July 22, 2025 (10:27 pm)
  
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  The real alternative would be state income tax but the 1%ers have blocked it repeatedly.
  - Mike July 23, 2025 (5:15 am)
    
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    The alternative is to balance the budget and not spend frivolously on pet projects and grifters. Raising taxes and not balancing a budget is like buying fireworks and throwing them into Puget Sound. If you’re going to blow your money up, at least get something from it.
- Neighbor July 23, 2025 (1:40 pm)
  
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  Wow, it’s hard to imagine being more wrong. Sales taxes specifically and use taxes in general are regressive. There is an inverse relationship between the amount paid and the consumer’s income. This is elementary arithmetic. Spreading the lie that there’s a relationship between income and crime does a disservice to everyone. Your ignorance is harmful. Please do better.
Lauren July 23, 2025 (10:28 am)

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Sales tax disproportionately impact people with lower incomes. That’s not opinion. WS98 is right, an income tax would be MUCH more equitable AND also provide better, more sustainable funding for critical services, while also easing the tax burden on the majority of people in the state.

Rhonda July 22, 2025 (7:36 pm)

Another regressive tax while the middle-class, struggling-class, and the working poor can barely (or can’t) make ends meet.

walkerws July 23, 2025 (10:52 am)

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Glad you agree with me that we need a state income tax.
- Rhonda July 24, 2025 (1:01 am)
  
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  An income tax is illegal in Washington State. If we had one, even minimum-wage workers would pay it, as they do in all states with an income tax.

Eric1 July 22, 2025 (7:57 pm)

They should raise it a lot more and actually keep criminals in jail and treat the mentally ill properly. It would solve a lot of problems.

Grizz July 22, 2025 (9:18 pm)

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I have a better idea. How about we institute a state income tax so wealth is taxed proportionately instead of continuing to punish folks for being poor?
- Eric1 July 22, 2025 (10:48 pm)
  
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  Grizz I am not rich, I just know math. If the state has an income tax, you pay that on all wages, not just consumption. Say the average income tax is around 7%, and a low family income in King County is $100,000 (two working people @ $25/hr). You automatically lose $7,000, of your take home pay to the state, you will pay probably 5% sales taxes on everything in addition to that. In Washington, your food is tax free, your rent is tax free, insurance is tax free, savings is tax free and those are the top expenses in an average household. If there was an income tax, you would have paid Washington State taxes on all those categories. Okay, I get not everything is tax free – but in my poorer days, I bought everything at garage sales and the equivalent of Facebook Marketplace – these are all tax free. Sure nothing is new (my home is still full of mismatched furniture and dishes) but you can almost swing your entire life state tax free (I do buy new underwear). I might not be poor anymore but I still drive cars that average 10+ years old to keep tabs and insurance is low. I could live large and be poor, or act poor and be middle class and that is the secret. If sales taxes are so bad and income tax is so good, how come our neighboring state Oregon still has poor people? Idaho has both, other countries have different systems and I haven’t heard of a perfect one yet. Also stop making like Washington is somehow exceptionally hard on the poor because of no income taxes. Washington ranks 41st in poverty by Wikipedia so I am guessing our tax system is better than most.
- Anne July 22, 2025 (11:03 pm)
  
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  You’re living in the wrong state for that to happen.
Seattlite July 23, 2025 (3:17 am)

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What results have you seen thus far from raising taxes? That’s right…none. Criminals and the mentally ill back in the day were handled efficiently. However, for some reason, mental facilities have decreased and criminals on the streets have increased.
- walkerws July 23, 2025 (10:53 am)
  
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  Like most bad things in the last forty years, we can blame Ronald Reagan.
Mellow Kitty July 23, 2025 (7:34 am)

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Better idea, tax Amazon. They get billions is revenue and pay zero taxes. They sure don’t share the wealth with the employees, which is what those breaks are supposed to do.
- M July 23, 2025 (3:39 pm)
  
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  That’s on our government though. They are the ones that create the tax laws.

WestSide 4 life July 22, 2025 (8:45 pm)

This is excellent news. Although crime statistics are trending down in some areas( as noted in previous posts ). It is evident that the voters are expressing concern about our law enforcement/ criminal justice levels. Very refreshing from just a few years ago dealing with the failed narrative of de-fund and re-imagine craziness. I will gladly spend an extra 10 cents per $100 spent on increased safety !!

Mellow Kitty July 23, 2025 (7:23 am)

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Do you really believe that money won’t be spent elsewhere? Remember the transit tax? Metro service got worse. Remember the cigarette and soda tax? Healthcare is more expensive & obesity is on the rise. Remember the marijuana tax? Schools are underfunded and ODs are on the rise. Are the roads any better after the gas tax, car tab fees and tolls? Did Amazon treat and pay its employees better after all the tax breaks they got? No. Taxes hurt the poor and subsidize the wealthy. That’s all they do. Who do you think covers the tax breaks for the wealthy? The money has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is the poor.
- walkerws July 23, 2025 (10:55 am)
  
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  Taxes “hurt the poor and subsidize the wealthy” only in the sense that we have an incredibly regressive tax system in Washington. We *need* state income tax.
CAM July 23, 2025 (9:08 pm)

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Crime is trending down across the country and some places internationally. There, I fixed that for you.

anonyme July 23, 2025 (6:07 am)

We’ve already had multiple property tax levies that supposedly were to address these issues. Now another tax on top of those, this time one we didn’t vote for. Enough is enough. We need a state income tax that would simultaneously reduce the sales tax in order to level the playing field instead on further increasing the burden on lower and middle-income taxpayers.

msw July 23, 2025 (5:46 pm)

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Yeah, what’s to prevent the Democrats from raising more taxes after they get an income tax? BS on income tax.

K July 23, 2025 (7:03 am)

Glad they’re doing this now so I know who not to vote for. Law enforcement has plenty of money in their budget, they just need to be smarter about how they spend it. Every other department is asked to reduce admin bloat and watch spending, while somehow law enforcement has convinced people they can only work if they have a blank check. They have money, they need to live within their means like everyone else.

WSB July 23, 2025 (10:10 am)

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Only one councilmember voted against it, Reagan Dunn. The only councilmembers on ballots in our area are Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, both of who voted for it, both running for KC Executive. The councilmember who represents our area, Teresa Mosqueda, voted for it; her seat isn’t on the ballot this year.

Carol Terao July 23, 2025 (9:39 am)

You know what i do when I can’t afford something essential? I budget better for it.

Scarlett July 23, 2025 (10:53 am)

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Can you “budget” for every single neccesity/essential that has become more and more expensive? That haircut, that car battery, that detergent, etc, etc? After a while you’re forced to choose one necessity over another. The truth is that the pandemic accelerated the most grotesque melt-up of wealth that the world has ever seen and it enriched not just the ultra wealth 1%, it enriched the 5%, the 10%. It also was the accelerant in a shocking decline in the moral fabric of society that we are witnessing right now, one marked by self-deception, self-interest and hypocrisy.

Jay July 23, 2025 (11:41 am)

Here’s an explanation of why sales tax (or VAT, consumption taxes in general) make little economic sense. The rich consume at a dramatically lower rate than the poor. A poor person spends nearly all of their paycheck in a month, a rich person
puts most of their paycheck in investments and savings. The velocity of
money, the rate at which it is circulated in the economy, is disproportionately driven by the working class and small businesses at a dramatic ratio. An extra dollar to a poor person gets spent on food, then to the wage of a grocery employee, then to local restaurant, then to a cook, then to a pet store, etc. all while an extra dollar to a rich person just sits in an account that is more often than not unproductive in the real economy, neither fueling economic activity nor being taxed. This is why consumption taxes are regressive taxes that primarily target the poor. The velocity of money is one of the most critical metrics indicating the health of an economy, and overtaxing the poor while allowing large corporations and the rich to hoard money effectively pulls it out of circulation in the real economy and lowers the potential for economic productivity.

Brandon July 23, 2025 (2:58 pm)

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In reality… The rich own properties and pay RE taxes, own business and pay B+O taxes on revenues through the company and provide work opportunities to those below them. The poor rent and earn a wage from the jobs the middle class and above provide. Sure, some of poor’s rent is reflected in the already high property taxes but let’s not ignore the fact the rich are paying more taxes than the poor already. You want the rich not to invest in the market and job creation? Ok, good luck having the poor do it. Yeah, everybody buys goods, but the rich buy higher quality and inherently pay more in local taxes. I don’t remember seeing a poor person with a $100,000+ car, I see them on an overpriced train. Why is the poor struggling while their wages keep getting higher? Because the cost of living is so high thanks to those high taxes of course. If you expect these ‘regressive’ taxes to suddenly go away with a state income tax, I have some ocean front property in Rainer Beach to sell you. It’ll just be more taxes and more hardship, and the middle class will join the poor while the rich leave the state for more friendly states – so much for their investment locally then! You want a solution? Stop voting for officials who default to raising taxes, because they don’t know how to spend. Thats tried and failed and the reason we are in this mess. Hold on, I’m talking to a brick wall.
- CAM July 23, 2025 (9:11 pm)
  
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  And yet despite all the sacrifices of the rich for the betterment of the not rich, there’s still people dying of poverty in this country. Can’t imagine why anyone would question your trickle down theory.

Mellow Kitty July 23, 2025 (2:18 pm)

One more thing being overlooked here. Even with all of the taxes we currently pay, the State handily mismanaged that money and left us, the taxpayers, with a 12+B (Yes, as in BILLION ) dollar bill to pay. No new taxes unless someone in government can learn how to manage and live on a limited budget. We have to dispite the State taking more and more out of our pockets.

WSB July 23, 2025 (4:01 pm)

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Just to clarify, this is not a state tax. This will be a King County tax. The local taxing authority was given by the Legislature – they make the laws dictating what local jurisdictions can do, in many things – but the state doesn’t get the money.
CAM July 23, 2025 (9:15 pm)

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Government budgets don’t work the way household or business budgets do. Never have and never will. Some people in your federal “government” like to tell their constituents that they should to get people mad. And yet, anytime someone decides to elect a bunch of business people who have no experience in government to run things, things get worse. If you want to make these arguments I strongly encourage you to get a job working for the government, see how it actually works and why it can’t work the way people have made up in their heads, and then offer an opinion on how governments should spend money.
- CAM July 24, 2025 (11:00 am)
  
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  Case in point. Nelson and Saka are an embarrassment. Imagine how much money is wasted holding committee meetings they intentionally don’t attend in order to scuttle policy they don’t like.
  
  https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-city-council-members-stymie-appointments-to-renters-commission/#comments
- Mellow Kitty July 25, 2025 (9:04 am)
  
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  I work for the state. I’m well aware of the budget deficit and what led to it. My job was directly effected by the budget deficit. We knew nearly a year before it went public. Some of us sounded the alarm and were shut down and called liars. So. Here we are. The picture is right in your face and you STILL don’t see it.

Mark Schletty July 23, 2025 (2:31 pm)

I agree that a State income tax is needed and much more fair. But I cannot vote for one unless the income tax authorization is coupled with a mandatory elimination of the regressive taxes already in existence. I think most people who oppose an income tax do so because they believe it will just be an additional tax, not a substitute tax. Our elected politicians have given us all ample reason to mistrust them.