Sales tax takes a hike for Sound Transit

Today, in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, you're getting the sales-tax increase most of you said you wanted.

A sales-tax hike of 0.5 percent, or a nickel per $10 purchase, took effect today to fund a Sound Transit expansion.

Voters last fall approved Proposition 1, which called for the higher sales tax to extend light rail to Lynnwood, north Federal Way and the Overlake Transit Center, near Microsoft, by the early 2020s. The $17.9 billion plan is supposed to expand express-bus service 17 percent and boost capacity by two-thirds on Sounder commuter trains between Pierce County and Seattle.

The new tax comes on top of the Sound Transit sales tax of 0.4 percent that was already in effect, and a Sound Transit car-tab tax of $30 per $10,000 of vehicle value.

A typical adult will pay about $69 a year in new sales taxes, according to estimates made last year. The estimate for the median household, earning about $65,000 a year, is about $125 more a year (in current dollars).

Starting today, in King County, the sales tax is 9.5 percent, for most purchases, and 10 percent in a restaurant or bar.

In urban areas of Snohomish County (served by Sound Transit), the tax is now 9.4 percent. In most of Everett, the tax is 9.1 percent.

In Pierce County: the sales tax in Sound Transit territory is 9.3 percent.