Too late for ballots this November, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown proposes safeguards for sales tax proposal

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown has proposed major changes to the sales tax measure voters will consider this November, including a sunset provision, though the proposal comes months too late to change the ballot measure itself.

Voters in two months will be asked whether to approve an additional 0.1% sales tax within city limits, which Brown has proposed as a way to fund an expansion of police, fire and court services, among other investments.

If approved by voters, the sales tax increase is projected to generate about $7.7 million annually over its initial years – with 15% going to Spokane County, in accordance with state law. For every $1,000 spent on retail goods and services in the city, the tax would cost consumers an additional $1.

The ballot measure itself is for a permanent tax increase with no sunset date, an ambitious proposal to send to a cost-sensitive electorate that has been particularly tax-wary as of late. On Thursday, nearly two months after the ballot measure was approved by the Spokane City Council, Brown proposed that the council now OK an ordinance that would sunset the tax after ten years.

“By proposing a sunset provision on this sales tax proposal, we ensure it is only in place when truly necessary,” Brown wrote in a statement.

But unlike an expiration baked directly into the proposition that voters will decide in November, which would require voter approval to extend, a council-approved end date would appear to be susceptible to a future council removing the provision. Brown said in a brief Thursday interview that she expects watchful voters will prevent that kind of rug pull.

Councilman Michael Cathcart, who along with regular council commentator Dennis Flynn had already submitted an “Against” statement for the tax measure that cannot now be changed to reflect the new proposal, remains skeptical. Elections come every year, but not for every council member, and almost all of them are elected by district, not the entire city that will be voting on the tax proposal this November.

Brown also wants the council to create a segregated fund for revenue from the sales tax with safeguards requiring them to be spent on “community safety” investments and making it easier to see how the revenue is spent. The proposition, as written, already states that the funds would be used for “enhanced community safety and other public safety operations.”

“This proposal will ensure transparency, accountability, and the opportunity to give taxpayers confidence that this potential sales tax will be carefully reviewed and justified in its use,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson wrote in a statement.

The segregated fund will not further limit how the money can be spent, though – a key criticism by opponents to the sales tax. When the council voted in July to put the proposition on the ballot, Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who along with Cathcart voted in opposition, argued that there was little preventing a future council from declaring that protected bike lanes, for instance, were an acceptable use of the community safety fund.

Again, Brown argued Thursday that voters will punish elected leaders who use the funds in ways the public deems irresponsible. Given the increased transparency on where the money would go, it will be easier for the public to interrogate whether those uses are appropriate, she added.

“Knowing that, every year, there will be more elections, that is the way the public gets to say, they’re happy with how things are going or want a change,” Brown said, before adding that she feels she was elected last year due to concerns with how her predecessor was spending taxpayer funds.

Brown added that safeguards could hobble the city’s ability to respond quickly to emergent situations. Funding the recovery from the Oso landslide or to respond to COVID-19 was at-times stymied by guardrails that seemed reasonable at the time but didn’t account for unexpected emergencies, she argued.

While the criticisms the changes hope to address were all raised in July, Brown said it has become increasingly clear the community at large agrees with those concerns. She compared the late changes to the process she encountered in the state Legislature, in which a bill would go through numerous rounds of review and revision before it was approved.

“I’m not the kind of person who says we’re going to do things this way and not be willing to modify my position,” she said.