(King County Council votes to send property tax levy to April special election vote Jan. 31, 2023)
A new tax to pay for more mental health and substance treatment beds will now go to your ballot for a vote.
The 9-year property tax boost is being called a “generational investment” by one of its co-sponsors, King County Council Member, Girmay Zahilay. It would raise $1.25 billion, not only to expand treatment capacity and grow the workforce in mental health and substance treatment, but also to create 5 centers for people in immediate crisis. Until those centers are built, it would also provide either mobile or stationary temporary crisis care facilities. Supporters say people in an emergency are told they have to wait days or weeks to get the care they need now so the crisis care has been needed for a long time.
Standing outside a shuttered facility in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood Monday, County Executive Dow Constantine says, right now, there’s no place for people in crisis to go. Constantine says, “We see the results of that on the streets. We see it in the criminal legal system, and it really is a challenge throughout all our communities.”
The plan calls for a new property tax levy of about $121 for a median priced home, which would pay for new crisis facilities, other treatment beds and help with more people to operate them. Northwest Newsradio’s Ryan Harris asked Constantine what he says to people who say their property tax bill is already too high, and he put the onus on state lawmakers to reform what he calls a “regressive” tax system, “and yet if we use that as an excuse and stand idly by and do nothing,” Constantine says, “people will continue to suffer; we’ll continue to see this homelessness problem; we’ll continue to have our jails filled with people who really need to be receiving mental health treatment.”
Council Member Zahilay says people are right to be concerned about another levy that’ll cost a median-priced homeowner $121 dollars a year, adding that he took that into consideration as he proposed this measure, but he says the cost of inaction is greater. The tax would raise more than $100 million a year. Co-sponsor, Council Member Sarah Perry, says they’re already spending $100 million a year and getting nowhere, so she says this would be a more efficient way to spend that money.
The King County Council’s 9 to nothing unanimous vote Tuesday sends the levy measure to a special election ballot in April.
