New King County exec may seek tax hike

King County Executive Kurt Triplett will propose asking voters in November to increase the sales tax or property tax to offset a $46 million budget shortfall next year.

Members of the Metropolitan King County Council, who would decide whether to put a tax measure on the ballot, staked out positions Tuesday ranging from skeptical to outright opposed.

Without new taxes, Triplett said, the county will keep doing what it started this year — "dismantling some portions of county government. There's really no other way to say it."

Most at risk, he said, are public-health programs, human services and public safety — which together could face $20 million to $30 million in cuts even if employee-labor unions agree to unpaid furloughs or other concessions for the second year in a row.

Triplett's chief of staff, Noel Treat, told the council's Budget and Fiscal Management Committee on Tuesday that a tax proposal would be coming to them by mid-July.

He addressed the committee shortly after Sheriff Sue Rahr and representatives of the Prosecutor's Office and the courts said their organizations couldn't provide adequate services if they undergo another round of deep budget cuts.

Triplett did not indicate the size of the possible tax increase.

Two County Council members promptly dismissed the idea of a tax increase.

"I think you guys need to really know how wildly unpopular it is right now. Not only do I think you're going to have a really tough time getting it passed by the council ... it's certainly not going to be approved by voters," said Councilmember Reagan Dunn, of Maple Valley, who is up for re-election this year.

Councilmember Larry Phillips, of Seattle, who is running for county executive, also flatly opposed the idea. "I've said very clearly this is no time for new taxes," he said.

Dow Constantine, of Seattle, also running for executive, said he was skeptical but not irrevocably opposed.

"I'm glad to hear these guys out," he said. "I'm not one who jumps to conclusions, but I also am really concerned about the ability of folks in these economic times to absorb that level of tax increase."

Dunn said a poll in his district showed only 9 percent of voters support a sales-tax increase.

Triplett said in a later interview that voters might feel differently if they knew more about the county's budget problem.

"If I ask you if you want all the public-health nurses in the schools dealing with swine-flu cut, you might get a different answer. If you ask if you want all the patrol officers in unincorporated King County cut, you might get a different answer," Triplett said.

Triplett said he is leaning toward a sales tax rather than a property tax, but his proposal to the council will depend in part on the outcome of polling that will be funded by labor unions and human-services advocates. Residents currently pay 9.5 cents sales tax on a $1 purchase in most of King County.

The council, which is scheduled to recess the first two weeks of August, would have to vote by the end of July to put a new tax on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Triplett said he was open to Rahr's suggestion that sheriff's deputies be asked to take a 2 percent wage increase next year rather than the 5 percent raise in their contract.

"We're certainly going to have conversations" with the King County Police Officers Guild, he said, "about whether there is a contribution they're willing to make. We think that needs to be done in a cordial partnership manner."

Triplett, who was chief of staff to former County Executive Ron Sims, was appointed executive by the County Council in May after Sims resigned to become deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com