Spokane property tax levy officially pulled from August ballot

A major property tax levy was officially pulled off of the August ballot Thursday after a unanimous vote by the Spokane City Council.

The proposal would have raised taxes by $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value in the first year, bringing in an estimated $38 million per year at an annual cost of around $377 for the average homeowner. While Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration has emphasized the additional investments in public safety that could be funded through the levy, most of it would go to fill a massive hole in the city budget that the new mayor has inherited.

There were mixed emotions in the council chambers, with some celebrating the decision, calling it a win for constituents they worry cannot afford higher taxes. Others expressed deep concerns about the city’s finances and the looming possibility of laying off upward of 150 city employees, including dozens of police and firefighters.

Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke and Councilmen Paul Dillon and Zack Zappone expressed anger at the rhetoric of some major property owners and conservative politicians presenting few if any practical alternatives for balancing the budget, including at a news conference the day prior held by Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, which also featured Councilman Michael Cathcart.

“For those celebrating, this is a Pyrrhic victory,” Dillon said. “If your neighborhood is under-resourced and we don’t do something to change revenue, it will get worse.”

Cathcart reiterated his concerns that the city had not done enough to cut costs before going to voters and asking for a tax increase, and argued the council needed to have a more active role in budgetary discussions. Zappone argued that it was unreasonable to argue that cuts could be used to find upwards of $20 million in the city’s budget.

“It’s frustrating to hear that we’re having members of our community that all of a sudden think there’s a lot of bloat in the budget when we’ve had conservative mayors for the last 12 years that have been making cuts,” Zappone said. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot more to cut.”

Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who along with Cathcart has been critical of the major property tax increase, conceded that it would be unfair to not present a plan of his own. While none was forthcoming Thursday, he said he would present an alternative way out of the city’s financial woes in the near future.

The budget crisis has been largely driven by contracts with unions of city employees, who negotiated significant compensation package increases in recent years. The city managed to delay major cuts or tax increases during the prior administration of Mayor Nadine Woodward primarily by spending down city savings and through temporary federal pandemic relief funding, argued City Council President Betsy Wilkerson.

“If we had not received ARPA dollars, we would have been here three years ago,” she said. “We would have been talking about a levy, whether property taxes or sales taxes; we knew revenue was insufficient to meet the needs that our citizens were asking from us.”