A Senate bill has a hearing to discuss a new local sales tax proposal for public safety.

SB 5285, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Holy (R–Spokane), looks to incentivize cities and counties to increase employment of commissioned law enforcement officers via a one tenth of a percent local option sales tax.

The 0.1% tax on the selling price of goods or services must be used solely for employing additional commissioned law enforcement officers, until it exceeds the national average of officers.

AWC is concerned that this bill specifies that revenue could only be used for new officer positions until a city/town reaches the national average of 2.3 officers per thousand residents. The state average stands at 1.3/thousand but varies widely from city to town. The amount of officers necessary in some jurisdictions could differ from others.

Furthermore, we know from the data and city testimony that the retention of currently employed commissioned officers is equally as important as recruiting new ones.

While this new local tax revenue has the potential to help communities with a strong sales tax base, it won’t be uniformly helpful for all our cities and we still seek additional public safety funding solutions that are more direct, flexible, and equitable across the state.

Dates to remember

SB 5285 is scheduled for public hearing in the House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee on January 27 at 10:30 am.