At a sometimes-ugly meeting of the King County Council this afternoon, council Republicans killed a move to put King County Executive Dow Constantine’s 0.2 percent public-safety sales tax measure on the ballot. As we reported last week, council members will consider raising property taxes and cutting some existing property taxes to pay to keep some public-safety and public-health programs. The proposal, which required six votes to pass, failed with the council’s five Democrats voting “yes.”
“Lately, a number of members have been busy changing their minds on this proposal,” said County Council chair Bob Ferguson, a Democrat. “And the five of us [Democrats] have been busy putting together an alternative proposal. … this vote will define us as an institution and as a body. … No one has the high ground on this budget. Here at the King County Council, no one wakes up in the morning and wants a tax vote.”
Echoing Ferguson, Democrat Julia Patterson said in her closing remarks that she, Constantine, public-safety officials, and the Democrats on the council had believed that “we had an agreement” with Republicans to support putting the measure on a countywide August ballot.
“Taking a tax vote is a very difficult thing to do politically,” Patterson said. “Two of my Republican colleagues at [the] time [the measure was introduced] said, ‘Yes, I will support this proposal.’ … And something happened to that agreement that started about ten days ago that made some people on this council very nervous. … I don’t know that we would have reached his point if we had realized you were not supportive.”
Patterson’s remarks were punctuated by frequent outbursts from Republican Reagan Dunn. After one, Ferguson said, “You’re out of order, sir,” to which Dunn responded, “She’s out of order!” Finally, after Ferguson exhorted Dunn to “just let her finish,” the council voted on the proposal, which fell one vote shy of the needed six-vote supermajority.
Tomorrow morning at 9:30 am, the council’s five Democrats will present an alternative proposal that would effectively increase property taxes a net total of $34 on a $400,000 house. It’s unclear whether Republicans—including Dunn, who previously said he would support “reprioritizing” one of the county’s special-purpose property taxes—will consider getting behind the new proposal.
