Snohomish County Council, in a vote that was completely along party lines, passed a sales tax to fund services for affordable housing that will end up helping the homeless population.
Councilmember: Snohomish County sales tax increase getting ‘rushed with minimal transparency’
KTTH’s Jason Rantz says the council passed this without any meaningful community support. A group of local lawmakers called that out before the vote, saying that the voters should get to decide.
Russell Wiita, the mayor of Sultan, is part of that group.
“I joined 57 other local elected officials in the letter asking for the affordable housing sales tax increase to be put to voters,” Wiita told the Jason Rantz Show. “Mostly because, right now, responding to the pandemic, and business is struggling, we didn’t really think it was a time for the county council — in just a two-week, quick process — to impose this.”
Wiita said a tax increase like this would historically have had to go to the voters, however, the legislature recently passed a bill that allows either a county or city council to enact this without going to voters.
“We’re not necessarily arguing the merits of affordable housing or behavioral health, those are issues affecting all our communities, but it was to make the case to the voters that are going to have to pay this,” the mayor said.
Wiita noted that the increased sales tax will impact most purchases people make.
“I think voters are going to question why,”…
