Report: Under Trump, ‘too early to tell’ if higher taxes in King County will be needed
Nov 21, 2016, 12:26 PM | Updated: 1:22 pm
Taxpayers may have to pick up the slack in King County if President-elect Donald Trump’s ax chops as much funding as some people fear. Just how that would play out, however, remains to be seen.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine told The Seattle Times there is plenty of uncertainty when it comes to life under Trump.
The city and county rely somewhat heavily on federal funding, especially for health and human services. Seattle, for example, used more than $85 million in federal funding in 2015. That included more than $11 million for homeless programs and more than $14 million for transportation, the Times reports.
Related: Mayor Ed Murray says Seattle will remain a sanctuary city
Trump has promised that within his first 100 days in office, he will take action to “restore security and the constitutional rule of law.” That includes cutting all federal funding to “sanctuary cities,” like Seattle.
Constantine told the Times that, as of now, he believes public health, homelessness and disease prevention will see funding cuts. The Times points out that more than 200,000 people in the county may be impacted by changes to — or the total repeal of — the Affordable Care Act.
But the two state leaders also expect to keep programs affected by the Trump administration going. So how will they do that?
The Times reports Murray has discussed a new property-tax levy to pay for homeless services. However, that is still up in the air.
Constantine says it’s too early to know whether increasing property taxes is the right move.
If city and county leaders did decide to take that route, it would add to the increased taxes people will start experiencing starting in January, after the approval of Sound Transit 3. ST3 will increase sales tax by 0.5 percent (50 cents on $100 purchase), increase car-tab taxes by 0.8 percent ($80 a year per $10,000 vehicle value), increase property tax annually by $25 per $100,000 assessed home value.
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