Spokane pushes for public safety tax increase after eyeing $9M cut to police

(The Center Square) – The City of Spokane’s elected officials approved Mayor Lisa Brown’s Community Safety Sales Tax on Monday night, sending it to the ballot for voters to decide in November.

Brown proposed the one-tenth of 1% sales tax increase earlier this month in an effort to plug some of the city’s approximately $50 million deficit. The mayor previously pushed for another much larger property tax but pulled the measure, in part because the city council said it didn't have enough information about the proposed tax.

However, the sales tax is only estimated to bring in roughly $7.7 million annually, less than 25% of what the other measure would’ve generated. This could ultimately diminish the county’s ability to hold people in local jails, which have released more than 2,700 felony offenders in the last three years.

Brown held a budget meeting last week with the rest of the city's department heads and laid out a list of possible budget cuts to alleviate some of the deficit. The cuts included more than $9 million from law enforcement, almost $5 million from fire services, and more from the courts.

“I am grateful to the Council for their support in placing the Community Safety Sales Tax on the ballot,” Brown wrote in a news release. “Money from this sales tax will go toward critical investments like new, reliable vehicles for our firefighters, reviving the Neighborhood Resource Officer program, and overall improved community safety for all.”

During Monday’s briefing session, Councilmember Michael Cathcart questioned whether Brown would try to use the revenue for purposes other than those listed.

City Attorney Mike Piccolo said the city can use the revenue for items listed under state law, including police and fire services, municipal court and other areas.

The law that Piccolo referred to requires the city to clearly state its purposes in the ballot measure title; however, the city only states “Community Safety Purposes.” Still, the state requires the city to spend at least one-third of the revenue on “criminal justice purposes.”

Washington defines “criminal justice purposes as “activities that substantially assist the criminal justice system, which may include circumstances where ancillary benefit to the civil justice system occurs, and which includes domestic violence services such as those provided by domestic violence programs, community advocates, and legal advocates.”

From 2021 to 2023, that definition included purposes that reduce law enforcement interactions with the homeless and those struggling with behavioral health; however, that’s no longer considered a “criminal justice purpose,” though it’s unclear if it counts as a “community safety purpose.”

The county is also asking voters to approve a tax measure in November; however, it’s a renewal rather than an increase. Still, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said if voters approve the city’s increase and reject the county’s renewal, public safety will only get worse.

“I get that she’s trying to cover a huge budget shortfall,” Nowels said last week, “but Mayor Brown taking one-tenth of this 1% is really going to reduce the county’s capacity to do the whole broad spectrum of what needs to be done in this community to improve public safety.”

If the county fails and the city succeeds, Detention Services, which handles the jails and juvenile facilities for both municipalities, could face upwards of a 90% cut to its annual funding.