The mayor of Kent wants to go back to voters later this year after a public safety measure failed during a special election Tuesday night.
The measure would have raised utility taxes 2 percent in the city to pay for around two dozen additional police officers.
“There are no other funding streams,” said Mayor Dana Ralph. “The frustrating part is this is what our community wants; it’s what they deserve.”
Ralph blames tax fatigue for the measure’s failure on Tuesday. Voters in South King County have watched their property taxes increase and have recently been asked to vote on school levies and Sound Transit’s expansion.
However, low turnout was another factor, estimated at just 25 percent in Kent. Theodore Montgomery lives in Kent and says he did not even realize the measure was on the ballot but would support it in the future.
“We tend to argue and get upset when they want to raise the taxes, but for certain purposes it's worthwhile,” said Montgomery.
The Kent City Council would first have to approve sending the measure back to voters, but if they do, Proposition A would appear again on the ballot as early as the August Primary or in November.
The measure would raise utility tax in the city by two percent to a total of 8 percent -- costing the average Kent household about $11 more each month, according to a city analysis. It’s estimated that would generate nearly $5 million in new revenue each year, to pay for 23 new police officers, as well as several other criminal justice positions including a new prosecutor and public defender.
“We are a very fast-growing community, and as a police department we have not been able to keep up with the growth,” acknowledges Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas.
Chief Thomas says his department is understaffed at a time when stats show violent crime in the city has increased.
“We have been driving our officers very hard with mandatory overtime, and along with all of this violent crime, comes a lot of stress,” said Chief Thomas. “So right now, say, over the past five or six years, we have a very tired and very stressed workforce and we just cannot continue to drive our officers in this same manner.”
Chief Thomas says the current volume of calls is outpacing the department’s resources, affecting their ability to respond to lower level incidents. Aside from crime, Mayor Ralph worries officers can’t fully engage in basic community policing and outreach.
“Our residents want to see our officers in schools, at community meetings; they want them working with our homeless population, not just putting them in jails but figuring out how to connect them with services,” said Mayor Ralph. “Without additional officers, we don’t have the capacity to do that.”
Opponents of Proposition A argued the police department should be funded through the city’s regular budget, urging the mayor and council to use the tax revenue the city already has.
Mayor Ralph says she’s already faced with cutting the budget by more than $10 million, in large part due to state legislation on sales tax that has impacted the city’s revenue stream.
“The City of Kent is facing what we’re calling the fiscal cliff,” she said. “We're cutting back on all of our other city services just to maintain status quo, especially in public safety, so we're really out of options. Adding another tax, asking people to pay more money is absolutely my last option.”
