Snohomish County Council Approves 0.1% Public Safety Tax

After a contentious Wednesday morning public hearing, the Snohomish County Council voted 3-2 to pass the 0.1% public safety sales tax without any distributions to the city. Council member Nate Nehring’s two amendments were shot down 2-3 as they would have hampered the effective collection of the tax and led to more drastic cuts in services.

The county is facing a structural budget deficit of around $28 million for its criminal justice and court services, the new sales tax is projected to raise roughly $24 million. It will be coupled with an additional revenue source and a 3% overall cut in the county’s budget to close the deficit. This closed revenue will prevent the elimination of jobs to departments that have spent the last decade facing cut after cut after cut which has forced the employees to do more work to meet the county’s minimum service standards.

Of the two amendments created by Nehring, the one that created the most discussion was aimed at utilizing 15% of the county’s raised tax revenue to create a grant fund that the county executive would manage and cities could apply for to help with their public safety needs. Council chair Megan Dunn raised the concern that there is no guarantee that the cities that apply to the grant would meet the CJTC requirements that the Sheriffs are required to meet – there could be a $100,000 per day fine if the county is found out of compliance.

His other amendment was an attempt to force the tax raise to a public election which would have pushed the county into furloughs and the closing of diversion programs.

The only amendment to pass was Dunn’s amendment to create a public web page that would allow residents to see the tax collected and see how it’s being spent. That passed with a unanimous 5-0 vote and no discussion.

While the county technically has until October 16th to notice the Washington State Department of Revenue when it approved the tax, the structure of layoffs with union contracts and the manner which existing programs are structured mean that the council had to vote today to approve or deny the fund and could not push it off until the budget process or a pubic vote. Despite the repeated advise from staff that the state deadline was not the same thing as internal deadlines, council member Jared Mead continued to push for including the sales tax into the budget which would have led to furloughs.

Unlike what Nehring and Mead were hinting at throughout the conversation during the council discussion, this new sales tax is half of what voters voted against in 2024 (by 14%). This sales tax is tied to a state law that was passed in 2025 and requires the CJTC certification, training, and compliance as the county government collects it. The tax that was approved on Wednesday also does not provide funding for new programs, it’s about maintaining the status quo because of inflationary pressures caused by Trump’s illegal tariffs and war against Iran; along with the long-term affects of previous budget cuts.

Thanks to Nehring’s proposed amendment two – there was also conversation during the discussion about the continued financial pressure cities and their residents face; especially with the public safety sales taxes are starting to stack in some jurisdictions. Lynnwood council president Nick Coelho pitched an 80/20 split where the 20% of the county’s public safety sales stayed within the city and the county kept 100% of unincorporated Snohomish County’s tax revenue.

Ultimately, the majority of the county council were of the opinion that reducing the county’s tax revenue – even to share it with the cities – would jeopardize the services that the city police and court systems rely on from the county.

As for the public comment portion of the public hearing, there was only one person that spoke out against adopting the public safety sales tax and that was former Snohomish County sheriff Adam Fortney. Fortney claimed that the county’s justice system is opaque in it’s expenditures and highlighted the recently approved $170,000 audit that the council approved – he conveniently ignored the fact that the audit’s main goals are to find efficiencies while grappling with the growing cost of healthcare and mental health needs.

The new sales tax will take effect on January 1st, 2027.