Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

x close
The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

The King County Sales Tax Seems Dead. What Now?

Politics   May 21, 2010 at 4:54 pm Erica C. Barnett

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.




  • giffy

    I don't really see what is so bad about cutting crime and justice spending. I see a lot of waste on nonsense crimes and other things.

    And if unincorporated areas don't like it they can incorporate and actually pay their fair share for what they want.

  • joshmahar

    Is it constitutionally legal for elected officials to redirect funds from a voter approved levy to non-levy approved uses without a secondary public vote?

    I mean I understand that these are dire, unexpected needs, but that would mean that when we approve levies, we're just suggesting how the money should be spent.

  • anon

    Actually, that's not what the proposal is. Publicola's post is inaccurate. The proposal from what I've read elsewhere is that Dunn would vote for the sales tax which would go to criminal justice, IF the council and Constantine also agree to reduce other taxes (like the real estate excise tax, etc). From the Times: “Dunn said he wants a “revenue-neutral” solution in which any sales-tax increase would be offset by rollback or repeal of existing special-purpose taxes.”

    The Times (for once) has a good article on this. Sounds like there's another play in motion.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews…

  • Frank Powers Jr.

    Nice play by Constantine–dedicate the new tax to something people know they can't live without…criminal justice, a no-brainer. Don't worry folks, if it fails they'll do the ol' switcheroo: make cuts elsewhere to keep the cops and lawyers working. The real irony here is that when the state Legislature proposed a sales tax to address critical needs (they pay for criminal justice too), the so-called progressives cried it was “regressive” and “unsustainable.” Even the right-leaning Seattle Times railed against it. But when King Dow puts the sales tax on the table, it's suddenly the Right Thing To Do! What hypocrisy. Maybe the real reason the sales tax proposal tanked in Olympia is because The Times crew, King County legislators and the various special interest groups clinging to their pants legs knew that a County sales tax hike wouldn't have a prayer if it followed on the heels of a statewide increase. Once again, our local visionary leaders throw the needs of the whole state under the bus to save their own butts. Guess that's just politics.

  • J.R.

    Anon is correct. The Council can't legally transfer funds from a voter-approved levy to a different purpose without a public vote (although only two of the five possible taxes ECB lists are voter-approved in the first place) and whatever deal they could cut would still require an authorization vote on a sales tax increase (or a property tax increase, if the Council decided to go in that direction).

    Frank Powers is dead wrong, however. The County's General Fund budget is the one that's in trouble and 75 percent of GF goes for public safety (courts, jails, prosecutor, sheriff), so there's no way to make major cuts to that budget without cutting cops or prosecutors. So, do worry about cuts to public safety because they will have to be made unless the voters approve more funding.

  • http://spifflines.blogspot.com/ John Bailo

    What's next for the CC? Pillory 2010!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenjonbro/2859076333/

  • Jim

    Is a small hint of reality creeping into King County Council ? What a novel idea, incresing priority of public services over the over the Parks Expansion program, the updated fingerprint system, and the mental health redundant programs.