EVERETT, Wash — Despite protests by political and business leaders in Snohomish County, it looks like voters will not be allowed to vote on a proposed sales tax hike.
The Snohomish County Council is expected to vote on the increase Wednesday morning.
The .01% hike would add $1 to a purchase of $1,000.
It would cost the average shopper approximately $22 more per year.
"I'd happily pay that $22 for housing," said Candace Angelo, who lost her home when the friend she was staying with got evicted two years ago.
She's sober and has a monthly disability check to pay rent, but she can't find anything she can afford.
So Angelo sleeps at a church and comes to Esther's Place day shelter to warm up and eat, but her outlook is bleak.
"There's no hope," she said. "If there's no hope, where are you?"
Snohomish County officials say the sales tax increase would raise more than $100 million.
In doing so, it would allow builders to double the number of affordable housing units on the market to 522 over the next five years, as well as get about 40% of the homeless off the streets.
Homeless advocates say more housing needs to be built immediately because people are waiting up to seven years to get a roof over their heads.
"I can't do that," Angelo said. "I'm too old for that."
When asked how much longer she can hold on, Angelo said, "Not much longer. They just keep telling me I have to wait. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
On Tuesday, 58 local leaders across Snohomish County sent a letter to County Executive Dave Somers imploring him to put the increase to a vote of the people.
"An increase to the sales tax is one of the most regressive tax options available because it forces lower income families to pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than do higher-income families,” wrote Everett City Councilmember Scott Murphy. “I strongly encourage our elected County representatives to slow down, explore other options and make the case to the public to ensure support for this funding source before taking action.”
Snohomish County already has the highest sales tax in the state.
A homelessness crisis in Washington prompted a recently enacted state law that allows cities and counties to bypass voters in order to approve sales tax hikes if the money is used for low-income housing.
"Certainly, I think this is kind of the lazy way of doing it and not respecting the will of the people," said Lombardi's restaurants CEO Kerri Lonergan-Dreke.
She believes even 1/10th of a percent tax increase would hurt low and middle income families because the costs of just about everything are creeping up these days.
She wants the council to find better ways to build more housing without raising taxes.
"I'd like to see them pursue property tax relief incentives for developers and other investors who are willing to invest in below market rate housing stocks. They can streamline the permitting process so we can get developers in the pipeline sooner, and finish these projects sooner."
While the debate continues, people like Candace Angelo suffer.
She'll spend another night without a home and her hope quickly fading.
"You just want to give up," she said. "I'm not giving up yet, but I want to."
