A recent We Heart Seattle cleanup (Image: We Heart Seattle)
With a week until the August 5th Primary Election, Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson says her $9 million a year “bold plan to break the cycle of addiction and homelessness” with a new sales tax increase to fund addiction treatment services will be decided on Tuesday.
CHS reported here on the proposal to direct 25% of a new tenth of a cent sales tax authorized by the state legislature for cities to pay for public safety services to longtime service providers like Evergreen Treatment Services, the Downtown Emergency Service Center, and newcomers like The More We Love and We Heart Seattle.
There has been increased efforts to fund so-called “treatment first” options as low-barrier providers have struggled with the ongoing homelessness crisis. CHS reported on We Heart Seattle and founder Andrea Suarez as she unsuccessfully ran for the 43rd District seat in Olympia last year. Suarez said at the time the organization was hoping to win city funding to expand its work.
Nelson’s proposal comes as the battle for her citywide chair on the council heads into next Tuesday’s first count in the primary. Nelson’s hopes for a second term are lined up for her to make it through the top-two primary as she battles main challenger Dionne Foster, director of the nonprofit Progress Alliance of Washington.
It also comes as President Donald Trump has issued his latest sorties of executive orders including a homelessness directive intended to ease encampment removals and force drug and mental health treatment. The administration says it also intends to shift federal funding to prioritize “money for programs that require sobriety and treatment,” NPR reports.
The order also calls on the federal government to reopen legal pathways for states to pursue “civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time.”
In Seattle, Mayor Bruce Harrell and the council haven’t yet announced a plan to implement the state-authorized sales tax increase but are expected to move on the opportunity that could also bring new funding for policing and police alternatives.
Nelson’s office says the tenth of a cent sales tax bump would generate over $35 million annually with her “Pathways to Recovery” legislation claiming a 25%, $8.75 million chunk.
The state’s sales tax currently weighs in at 6.5%. Seattle’s local additions currently round out at a total 10.35%.
The Seattle City Council is scheduled to vote on the Nelson component of the possible sales tax increase Tuesday.
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