The Snohomish County Council is being asked by County Executive Dave Somers to place a countywide sales tax for public safety onto November’s ballot.
A public hearing is anticipated to be Wednesday, July 10 at the county council.
The two-tenths of one percent increase would add two cents to every $10 purchase. Monroe’s sales tax, for example, would become 9.8%, or 98 cents per $10 purchase.
A similar ballot measure in 2016 failed at the polls.
If successful, Somers’ office proposes using the money raised to hire additional law enforcement officers in multiple areas, including more park rangers; increase court services funding; create a safe drug withdrawal detox center, which Snohomish County lacks; and other facets of public safety.
If voters say yes, state law obligates the county distributes 40% of the sales tax money to cities in the county on a per capita (population size) basis.
Mayors around the county sent a letter of support to the County Council for the tax.
“We believe that a significant majority of the new revenue must be invested in new criminal justice system investments, including increasing the number of Sheriff’s Deputies and Deputy Prosecutors, and fortifying behavioral health infrastructure and programming,” the mayors group wrote.
