Tax proposal for new Spokane jail punted until late 2027

(The Center Square) - Spokane County officials signaled Tuesday that the political runway for placing a tax proposal on the November ballot is too short and effectively took it off the table until at least August of 2027.

The Board of County Commissioners didn’t hold a formal vote, but Chair Mary Brooks suggested there isn’t enough time to persuade voters before the fall general election during Tuesday’s briefing meeting.

Commissioners Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan agreed, noting that there’s more to do before proposing a funding mechanism to implement recommendations from the Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force.

“I, in my heart right now, do not feel like if we put something on the ballot in November, it’s going to pass,” Brooks said. “We have got to show our further commitment to this … to show what can happen along the way as we go to what a ballot measure would look like in August or November of next year.”

The privately-led task force released a report in June outlining how public officials could align regional criminal justice and behavioral health systems. One recommendation called for modern justice centers and a network of community-based facilities, two years after voters rejected the last jail tax proposal.

The two-tenths of 1% sales tax would’ve generated an estimated $1.7 billion over 30 years to replace the county’s aging and outdated downtown jail and Geiger Corrections Centers with two new facilities.

Recent polling suggests that voters are skeptical about how local officials spend their taxpayer dollars.

Roughly 63% of voters rejected the jail tax in November 2023 after critics argued that it devoted too much attention to the jail without a concrete plan for addressing other priorities like behavioral health.

Brooks said she doesn’t think the commissioners can “do justice to a ballot measure” with the deadline for placing one up to voters in November just two weeks away. The county is still working on the siting process for new justice facilities, and the board still isn’t sure how much it’s going to cost the taxpayer.

Jordan said the task force gave them a “roadmap” of priorities to consider and said the planning team continues meeting to discuss what they do in the meantime. However, postponing the ballot measure means pushing out construction even further, as some officials have spent years calling for a new jail.

“If it’s a two-tenths public safety measure, as we've talked about, August, I believe, of next year will be the next date,” Jordan said, noting that the ballot timing depends on what tax measure they pick.

While multiple jurisdictions across Spokane County were involved in the task force with private sector stakeholders, the decision to place a tax measure on the ballot for voters lies with the commissioners.

State law limits the ability to place a sales tax before voters to the primary and general elections in August and November, meaning that if Spokane went that route, the next opportunity would be in 2027.

The commissioners have also considered several other tax measures that they can pass without voter approval, but none would raise the capital necessary for a new jail. The county could get it done with a property tax levy lid lift, but that could prove to be a harder ask than simply funding new facilities.

The county is also facing a $30 million deficit ahead of 2027, which has the officials considering how to avoid major impacts on public safety. They’re trying to avoid raising taxes by balancing spending with cuts, but the board hasn’t ruled out the possibility altogether, considering the size of the hole this year.

The task force’s recommendations complicated things even further, as the county faces a mandate to implement the report while also trying to balance the budget before asking taxpayers for more money.

“That's kind of the sense I've been getting too,” Waldref said, referring to the building momentum, but also the short runway before the ballot measure deadline next month. “There are some T's we have to cross with understanding how much funding is available, and then which projects could be funded.”

“We want to make sure we … put something on a ballot so folks know what they're buying,” she said.