Editor's Note: This story was updated to reflect new endorsement information released on Thursday, Oct. 24.
Emergency call volumes are up, and first responders are spread thin. Businesses are, yet again, sounding alarm bells over the state of downtown. Residents say safety is a top priority, and politicians on both sides of the aisle seem to agree that Spokane's police and emergency services need more resources.
The question is how to pay for it.
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown's solution: Proposition 1 — a sales tax proposal appearing on the November ballot asks voters if they're willing to raise the local sales tax by 0.1% to boost police, fire and court services. The tax would cost Spokane shoppers about 10 cents for every $100 they spend on retail goods within city limits and would raise about $7.7 million annually, with 15% of the proceeds going to Spokane County as required by state law.
Brown has proposed putting the majority of the funds into the city's police and fire departments. Some would also go to municipal court services and the Office of the Police Ombuds.
This is Brown's second attempt at a public safety tax. When she took office in January, the city had a $25 million deficit in its general fund, which pays for police and fire services. In the spring, Brown originally proposed asking voters to approve a property tax levy to help address the deficit and pay for new public safety services.
The property tax proposal faced swift political blowback. Less than two weeks after asking the City Council to put the property tax levy on the August primary election ballot, Brown withdrew the proposal and went back to the drawing board.
"I want to make sure we do this right," Brown said at a news conference announcing the decision.
Brown says her new "community safety sales tax" proposal is smaller and more targeted.
"The focus is really narrowed into, I think, the key areas that the public wants to see improvement," Brown says.
Because it's a sales tax, and not a property tax, out-of-town visitors who benefit from Spokane's public safety services will also pay, she says. It will also be more affordable for Spokane families, she says, as critical goods like food, medication and rent are exempt from sales tax.
Brown says the city has made progress in addressing its deficit in recent months, and that the general fund deficit is now estimated to be closer to $10.9 million. Part of that was achieved through mandatory furlough days, layoffs, eliminating vacant positions, renegotiated contracts, and a voluntary retirement incentive for eligible Spokane police officers.
"We're definitely moving in the right direction," Brown says. "We're not 100% there yet, but I think we've made significant progress."
Still, Brown says efforts to get the city back on track financially would be significantly complicated if the sales tax doesn't pass.
Opponents of the sales tax say it is too vague and lacks guardrails to prevent elected officials from using it to fund non-public safety priorities. City Council member Michael Cathcart, who co-wrote the "argument against" statement in the voters' guide, describes it as a "blank check."
"There's no plan, there's no discussion, no council involvement," Cathcart says. "This has been one of the most opaque processes ever."
Brown disagrees. On Oct. 7, the City Council passed an emergency ordinance to add a "sunset clause" to the proposal, which would end the sales tax after 10 years. The emergency ordinance also created a dedicated "community safety fund" for the money raised by the tax to make sure the money is exclusively invested in community safety.
"This is really in response to the community's top priority right now, which is to expand capacity," Brown says. "It's thinking about the things that matter to people most."
WHAT WOULD IT PAY FOR?
The ballot language for Proposition 1 says the money will be dedicated to "enhanced community safety purposes and other public safety functions."Brown's proposed biennial budget for 2025 and 2026 would see the money split between four departments, with the vast majority going to police and fire. (The city recently switched to a two-year budget cycle.)
Over two years, the police department would get about $4.35 million to hire seven new officers to revive the neighborhood resource officer program and expand effective traffic enforcement. The department's neighborhood resource officers and dedicated traffic officers were moved to patrol at the start of this year because of staffing issues, and elected officials say they regularly hear from constituents who say bringing them back is a top priority. The revived program would place officers in neighborhoods outside of downtown, where they would work to ensure the community knows who they are and make their contact information readily available.
Over two years, the fire department would also get $4.35 million for rig replacements and "urgent station repair and enhancement." Brown says there are several fire rigs that are overdue for replacement.
Spokane's municipal court would get $2 million for "sustaining criminal justice services such as electronic monitoring and case management." Brown says the investment would expand capacity and the court's ability to monitor pretrial diversions and other interventions.
"When you increase the number of cases going through there, all the different pieces have to sort of work together, or you end up with log jams," Brown says.
The city's Office of the Police Ombuds, a civilian police accountability watchdog, would get $464,290 over two years for "expanded staffing, training and outreach capacity."
"It's a whole system," Brown says. "We're looking at the community safety departments comprehensively."
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Brown has been rallying hard to get business leaders — many of whom have decried the city's approach to public safety — to support the public safety sales tax.The Spokane Journal of Business editorial board endorsed the proposal in late September, describing it as a way to "give elected leaders greater resources to improve conditions downtown."
"The problems in the core aren't getting better, and complaints about conditions have reached a fevered pitch," the editorial board wrote. "The sense of urgency is apparent, and it makes sense to give the city more resources to address those issues."
On Sept. 11, the Spokane Business Association, which was formed earlier this year by local businessman Larry Stone, announced that it was endorsing the proposition during its first annual meeting.
"It's not quite normal for any business association to endorse a tax increase," says Gavin Cooley, the newly appointed CEO of the Spokane Business Association. "I think we looked at the situation that the community is in and what was being proposed, and we saw an opportunity to address those things."
The endorsement followed meetings with the mayor's administration and lots of deliberation among the association's board members, Cooley says.
The endorsement was a surprise to some in the business community.
"A lot of people are frustrated with this endorsement," Cooley says. "There's probably about 10 angry texts a day."
Much of the frustration, Cooley says, comes from business leaders who don't see things improving and don't have trust in the administration.
Sheldon Jackson, a local developer who runs an email group of local business owners outraged with the city's approach to drugs and crime, was one of those caught off guard by the endorsement. In an email to the business group the next morning, he said the association had made a "major mistake."
"The applause was muted and text messages flying," Jackson wrote. "If we support more taxes, we need to be able to trust the administration and council. So far, we are not seeing the results we were promised."
Jackson tells the Inlander that he does not trust the mayor and City Council to enforce public safety laws, and does not believe more tax dollars would change things.
Greater Spokane Incorporated has not endorsed the proposal. The Downtown Spokane Partnership, however, announced its endorsement of Proposition 1 by email on Thursday, Oct. 24.
The endorsement came after the City Council voted earlier this month to create a dedicated fund to collect the revenue from the tax for specific safety-related expenses, and to have the tax sunset in 10 years.
"The commitment of Mayor Brown and the City Council to prioritize adding new police personnel, enhancing operations, maintaining transparency and adding accountability are expectations that must be the foundation of any use of funds generated by this measure," Cameron said.
RESCINDED ENDORSEMENT?
When the Spokane Business Association voted to endorse Proposition 1, Cooley says that his understanding was the majority of funding would go to increasing the on-street presence for police and fire services. That means more officers walking a beat downtown, and more of the fire department's smaller units that respond to mental health and drug problems. It's a major priority of the business association, he says."Between police and fire having that on-street presence in the community, there's a pretty strong belief that can solve about 80% of the crisis that certain parts of our community are experiencing," Cooley says. "I'm proud of our board and leadership that they are willing to take this risk and say 'We're going to take that first step and endorse.'"
Weeks after the group's endorsement, however, Brown released her budget proposal, which allocates a large percentage of the funds to capital costs for the fire department. It's a poor use of the tax, Cooley argues — and not what the business association was expecting. He argues the city should look to other methods to fund capital expenses such as the new fire rigs.
"There's a lot of dollars in Prop. 1 that aren't necessarily going to on-street presence," Cooley says.
The business association decided to keep its endorsement, however, after the city began its Community Outreach, Response and Engagement, or CORE, program. The 30-day pilot has increased the number of law enforcement officers downtown as well as the number of rehousing experts and mental health specialists.
Cooley says the endorsement comes with caveats, but he is "leaning into that hope" that the CORE program, or something like it, will enable the city to enforce laws.
He says the new downtown officers are necessary to make sure people are abiding by the established rules that regulate sitting, lying, or camping on public property, obstructing the right of way, using drugs in public or operating a nuisance property.
The CORE program added six more police officers downtown. If the pilot is successful, these officers could be kept downtown with money designated for police from the community safety fund, the city's Director of Communication Erin Hut says. The seven new neighborhood resource officers the tax would also fund is a conservative estimate, she says, which leaves some money on the table to be allocated as the city conducts more research.
Cooley stresses that he appreciates the mayor's hard work and collaboration on the issue, and that he's hopeful the disagreement over capital costs will be worked out soon.
"I think we're moving in that direction," Cooley says. "I'm very hopeful this will all get resolved."
TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY
City Council member Cathcart broadly agrees that neighborhood resource officers, traffic officers and other items in the mayor's budget proposal would be good for the city. The problem, he says, is that the current plan is way too vague."Nothing around the number of police officers, around the number of firefighters," Cathcart said last month. "Nothing around the very specifics."
The Mayor's team has only recently released specifics around how many officers could be hired and how many fire trucks could be replaced.
Brown says her proposal would involve hiring more police officers beyond the 350 the department is currently budgeted for. The current estimate is at least seven additional officers.
Cathcart argues that the proposed sales tax lacks restrictions to ensure the money is only used for public safety. He's worried current or future mayors and City Council members might divert it to other investments that differ from what voters expected under the broad umbrella of "public safety." He notes that a future City Council could hypothetically vote to get rid of the sunset clause and the dedicated community safety fund.
Brown disagrees with that concern. Future administrations always have the flexibility to propose new things. If politicians choose to use the money for something that wasn't what voters expected, citizens can vote them out, she says.
Cathcart is also concerned that the city's proposed sales tax could hurt future efforts to fund a new county jail with a sales tax. Voters rejected a proposal from the county to do just that last year, and many elected officials are operating under the assumption that a future sales tax proposal will be necessary to fund a new jail.
Cathcart argues that voting no on Proposition 1 doesn't necessarily mean voting no on more police and fire investments. It's still possible to vote this down and come up with a better, more detailed plan to fund neighborhood resource officers, traffic cops and the other investments the community wants, he says.
Brown says the proposition reflects what the community wants — and needs.
"Combined with the new leadership we have in police and fire, it is going to be well spent," Brown says. ♦
PROP 1 AT A GLANCE
How much would it generate per year?
About $7.7 million, of which $1.2 million would go to the county and $6.5 million would go to the city of Spokane.
How long would it last?
Ten years, per a sunset clause Spokane City Council passed on Oct. 7.
Could the revenue fund other things besides community safety?
No. The revenue would be placed into a designated community safety fund. Dollars could not be allocated to non-community safety efforts unless the fund were repealed by future City Council members.
Where will the city spend the money?
Of the estimated $13 million in revenue the tax would generate for the city over the next two years, about $4.35 million would be designated to police, about $4.35 million to the fire department, about $2 million to the municipal court, and about $464,000 to the Office of the Ombuds.
How many new police officers would it fund?
At least seven new neighborhood resource officers, who would restart the neighborhood resource officer program that places officers in neighborhoods outside of downtown. Other funds dedicated to the police department would probably add a mix of officers and new technology to the traffic unit. The money could also continue to fund investments like the current 30-day downtown Community Outreach, Response and Engagement (CORE) pilot program, if it proves successful.
What fire improvements will it fund?
The revenue would help replace one to two fire engines per year that are too old to be in the fleet. According to industry standards, a typical fire engine should be in service for 10 to 12 years. One of the fire department's vehicles is currently 25 years old. A typical engine costs about $1.2 million to $1.5 million, while a ladder engine costs at least $2 million fully outfitted.
What would it fund for the Office of the Ombuds?
One new staff member. Money would also go toward community awareness and engagement campaigns.
What would this do for the municipal court?
The designated funds would primarily maintain the staff members in the municipal court who are at risk of being laid off due to budget cuts.
Would this close the city's budget gap?
In part. Mayor Lisa Brown says she has charted a way to close the budget gap in two years even without this sales tax, and the community safety fund would be dedicated to new efforts. However, there's a notable exception, as the tax would be used to maintain the municipal court at its current size and prevent layoffs.
— ELIZA BILLINGHAM
