SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — The Spokane Valley City Council is considering adding a public safety sales tax to the August ballot.
Currently, the City of Spokane Valley has a sales tax of 8.9%, and receives less than 1% of the revenue.
The proposed sales tax would increase the current sales tax by 1/10 of 1%. This means if you made a purchase of $100, you would have to pay an additional $0.10 on the tax.
City officials said the increase would help police staffing levels keep up with the growing city. Since 2007, Spokane Valley’s population has grown by 22%, but the police department is still 20 police officers short of its goal.
“This is just trying to get us up to the existing workload and the demands that are on our police officers right now,” said City Councilmember, Ben Wick.
Currently, a majority of the city’s budget already goes toward public safety.
“We’ve been really trying to grow the economy to keep up with our expenses, but we just see some challenging roads ahead,” Wick said.
To avoid those challenges, the proposed sales tax would generate an estimated $2.6 million a year for Spokane Valley’s general fund.
Councilmember Wick is one of the six out of seven councilmembers who voted to proceed with more discussion over the proposal.
“The economy didn’t grow as much last year, and we have some large needs for public safety,” he said.
The funds from the sales tax would go toward hiring additional police officers, paying for operations and maintenance and retaining law enforcement.
Spokane Valley City Council will hear public comment about the potential sales tax at City Hall on April 1.
For more information on the public safety sales tax, click here.
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