Title
A MOTION requesting the executive to provide recommendations to restore justice for race-based restrictive real estate practices based on the findings in the Impact of Redlining and Racist Real Estate Practices on King County Residents report.
Body
WHEREAS, in 2001, Washington state voters approved Initiative 747 to limit annual property tax levy increases to one percent plus the growth from new construction, and
WHEREAS, in 2007, the state Supreme Court ruled on the case of Washington Citizens Action v. State to find Initiative 747 unconstitutional. However, that same year the state reinstated the one-percent limit through Chapter 1, Laws of Washington 2007 1st Special Session, and
WHEREAS, in the two decades since the limit was instituted, the revenue sources of counties have been structurally insufficient, as counties do not have the ability to impose business and utility taxes, unlike cities and the state, and
WHEREAS, since 2001, the county population has grown thirty percent, while consumer prices have increased seventy percent, and inflation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been as high as 9.5 percent, and
WHEREAS, despite the cumulative increase in costs of operating the county, the county's property tax levies have grown only an average of 2.68 percent in recent years, and
WHEREAS, at the June 14, 2023, budget and fiscal management committee meeting, the director of the office of performance, strategy and budget provided a briefing on the current $50 million revenue shortfall to the county's general fund as a result of the one percent limit on annual property tax levy increases, and
WHEREAS, the director also briefed the committee on the executive's plan to respond to the revenue shortfall by proposing budget reductions to the general fund in the midbiennial supplemental appropriation ordinance to the 2023-2024 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 19546, and additional reductions to the general fund in the 2025 annual budget, a...

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