Spokane Valley voters to weigh in on future of city’s law enforcement services through sales tax measure on August ballot
Spokane Valley voters will be asked to decide in August if they want to pay a higher sales tax to pay for more policing.
The Spokane Valley City Council voted 5-1 Tuesday to place a 0.1% sales tax measure on the Aug. 5 ballot in an effort to bolster the Spokane Valley Police Department. Councilman Al Merkel cast the lone dissenting vote. Councilman Ben Wick was absent from the meeting.
The tax, if approved, would generate an estimated $2.6 million annually, according to city estimates. Deputy City Manager Erik Lamb said funding would be used to hire at least 10 additional deputies over the course of the next two years, and to cover the costs of vehicles and equipment. The funding could be used for other public safety related costs in perpetuity, as the measure’s language does not include a sunset date for the tax.
Nearly half of the tax, which would be 10 cents on a $100 purchase, would be paid by visitors to the city as they shop and dine out, according to internal calculations. City staff estimate that it will cost the average Spokane Valley resident $12.43 per year.
Tuesday’s vote was the latest development in the council’s ongoing efforts to increase the local police force based on a 2023 consultant’s report that found law enforcement services have not kept pace with the city’s population growth. Matrix Consulting recommended the city add 25 deputies to the Spokane Valley Police Department, which is essentially a precinct of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
The council approved and funded 10 additional positions in February 2024, bringing the precinct’s total police force to 101 positions.
In casting his nay vote, Merkel said he believes the city should cover the costs of all recommended positions out of the city’s existing budget. The councilman had proposed earlier in the process the city start with a zero budget, funding public safety efforts in their entirety first, and then looking elsewhere for cuts.
“That is our job,” Merkel said. “That’s our responsibility to the taxpayer, and I think that asking the taxpayer to bear more of the burden for our mismanagement is incomprehensible.”
Councilwoman Jessica Yaeger countered that the council does not “have any other option at this point,” and noted cuts were made to other city operations to free up funding for the 10 positions approved last year, in what was already a challenging budget year. Municipalities across the state have seen sales tax revenue stagnate in recent years.
“What Councilmember Merkel was talking about is not funding streets or parks or pools,” Yaeger said.
“What he’s proposing does not work.”
Police services are the city’s greatest recurring cost, totaling over $41 million, more than half of the city’s 2025 general fund budget. That percentage climbs to nearly two-thirds of the city’s general fund budget when factoring in other related public safety costs like public defenders, prosecutors and judicial and detention services.
“We have tightened our belt here with the 36% that we control, and the other 64% is what we’re looking at having to raise some funds for,” Yaeger said.
Councilwoman Laura Padden and Mayor Pam Haley, in responding to Merkel, said bolstering the city’s police force is the council’s priority, but they’d like to avoid having it come at the cost of other city services or council efforts to improve quality of life, like street maintenance, economic development or the aquatics program.
“We’re responsible for more than just public safety, so we do have to look at ways to fund everything, not just one piece of what we’re required to provide,” Haley said.
“It’s amazing to me that the council member who poses himself as a champion of the people, only wants it if the people’s voice comes through him,” Padden said. “He is trying to silence the people by not allowing them to vote on this. …. I say let the people decide.”