Senate Bill 5770, which is a Washington state bill that would have given cities and counties the ability to raise property taxes at a higher rate will not move forward, according to King 5 News.
“We have heard the public’s concerns about property taxes,”the bills’ sponsor state Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said.
Currently the rate is capped at 1%, but the bill would have allowed local governments to raise property taxes up to 3% annually.
Despite strong arguments, Senate Minority Leader, Sen. John Braun, argued that local governments should rely on higher sales taxes to increase revenue adding that, the property tax hike would hurt not only homeowners but low-income renters as well, per the report.
The bill may not move forward in it’s current form, but that isn’t stopping Pedersen.
Pedersen says that he “remains committed” to offering local governments the flexibility to make needed economic choices.
“We recognize that we must do a better job of explaining both how the current 1% cap hamstrings local governments’ efforts to fund public safety and other essential services we all rely on and how small a portion of property taxes this policy would affect,” Pedersen said.