SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown and City Council President Betsy Wilkerson announced a plan to establish a Community Safety Fund and 10-year sunset provision for the proposed Community Safety measure.
If voters approve the proposed sales tax, it would cost Spokane residents and visitors about $1 for every $1,000 they spend with certain exemptions for necessities like food and prescription drugs. The city said the tax is expected to generate around $7.7 million annually.
About 15% of that revenue is expected to go to Spokane County.
The City said revenue from the tax would fund vital investments in the Spokane community’s safety system. Brown and Wilkerson propose the roughly $6.5 million collected by the City of Spokane be put into a dedicated Community Safety Fund to be used exclusively for improving public safety.
“By proposing a sunset provision on this sales tax proposal, we ensure it is only in place when truly necessary. My administration has made significant progress reducing our structural budget deficit outside of this proposed sales tax, but implementing it for the next few years will ensure our ability to make new public safety investments our community wants,” Mayor Brown said.
The city said part of these funds would be used to re-launch the Spokane Police Department’s Neighborhood Resource Officer, set up a traffic safety unit, replace outdated vehicles and equipment at the Spokane Fire Department, reinstate the Fire Academy and reduce the strain on the county jail.
The proposal is expected to go before the City Council in the next few weeks.
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