(The Center Square) – Some King County officials are signaling their support for a proposed Washington state Senate bill that would increase the property tax revenue limit for local property taxes to help fill a $50 million budget deficit for 2025. If passed, property owners
During the King County Budget and Fiscal Management Committee’s first meeting of 2024, King County Council member Girmay Zahilay said he and King County Office of Performance, Strategy and Budget Director Dwight Dively have advocated and testified for Senate Bill 5770.
“If [Senate Bill 5770] passes out of the state government, we could potentially backfill a lot of the shortfalls that we’re facing,” Zahilay said in the King County Budget and Fiscal Management Committee meeting on Jan. 24.
The financial forecast for the county is estimating that $30 million to $35 million of additional reductions will be needed in the 2025 budget unless new revenue is obtained through tax increases. Dively said that federal COVID-19 pandemic response funding that the county relied on to fill gaps in its budget “will be almost completely spent by the end of this year.”