(The Center Square) - A controversial sales tax increase will fund critical road repairs in unincorporated parts of King County, but will be paid for by residents across the county, including in Seattle.
The sales tax measure narrowly passed by the council by a 5-4 margin.
Voting in favor of Friday’s roads-fund tax increase were Councilmembers Rhodan Lewis, Teresa Mosqueda, Sarry Perry and Claudia Balducci.
The opponents were Rod Dembowski, Reagan Dunn, Steffanie Fain, and Pete von Reichbauer.
If Seattle voters approve a separate measure proposed by Mayor Katie Wilson to raise the city’s transportation tax to 0.3% later this year, residents in Seattle would pay a 10.8% sales tax, the highest in the state.
Even without the proposed Seattle increase, the sales tax rate will go up to 10.65%, up from 10.55%.
Residents of unincorporated non-urban areas of King County would pay 9%.
However, neither the residents of King County nor Seattle will get a chance to vote on the King County measure.
State law gives the King County Metropolitan Council the power to vote as a separate body called the “Transportation Benefit District", which it did on Friday.
This enabled the Council to bypass the voters and pass the tax increase.
The tax will automatically go into effect in January.
King County says the average household will pay $40 more in sales tax.
Councilmembers who voted against the measure, such as Councilmembers Stephanie Fain and Rod Dembowski, said their constituents could not afford a tax increase.
Dembowski spoke at the meeting about a restaurant server he had recently met, hard-pressed to afford life in King County.
He said he casually mentioned to her the tax increase and she replied, "I don’t know how much more I can take.”
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda and the majority voting bloc successfully argued that if preventive maintenance wasn’t done on the aging roads now, taxpayers would pay later as road conditions worsened.
“For too long, communities in unincorporated King County areas, like White Center and Vashon-Murray Island, have faced roads and transportation infrastructure that continues to deteriorate, and the only governing body with direct ability to invest in unincorporated infrastructure is King County,“ she said.
Mosqueda said the county faces a dire shortfall in funding for roads and bridges, with a need for more than $200 million annually and an existing budget of just $6 million.
The measure approved Friday is estimated to generate roughly $100 million in the first year.
Seattle would collect some of the sales tax, but Councilman Eddie Lin said in a statement that the money it would receive would be the lowest per capita among King County communities.
County estimates show that Seattle is estimated to get $4.7 million a year.
“We would miss out on roughly $30 million over 10 years — critical dollars for our roads and public transportation, “ Lin said.
Lin said wealthier suburbs in the county, such as Medina, Hunts Point, and Clyde Hill, receive a disproportionately high amount of sales tax dollars, subsidized by Seattle taxpayers.
