A Permanent, Regressive Property Tax
||| FROM SEAN DEMERITT |||
I am a lifelong Democrat. I have voted yes on levies when they are clear, honest, and benefit the whole community, like our fire department levy, which had a sunset clause and a specific purpose everyone could see. I am voting No on Proposition No. 1, and I am asking my fellow Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to do the same.
The campaign will tell you that a No vote cuts parks and essential services. That is not true. Read Resolution 02-2026 for yourself. The County’s own document lays out the pressures plainly: federal COVID grants ran out, state funding was reduced, and inflation drove up insurance and staffing costs. Fine. The County is right about all of that. What the resolution never explains is why those pressures require a permanent tax increase rather than a return to how the County operated before the pandemic.
Every senior on a fixed income, every disabled veteran, and every working family on this island already understands inflation. When our bills went up, we figured it out. We cut where we could, stopped spending money we did not have, and made do. The County faces the same reality. The difference is that when the rest of us ran short, we adjusted our own budgets. The County’s solution is to adjust yours.
During the pandemic, temporary federal grants allowed the County to shift employees to a 32-hour, four-day work week while continuing to pay full salaries. That was emergency money for an emergency, not a permanent policy anyone voted on. Resolution 02-2026 acknowledges those funds are gone. When they ran out in December 2025, the Council had one straightforward choice: go back to a standard 40-hour work week. Instead, they made the four-day schedule permanent and asked voters to cover it forever. San Juan County is now the only county in Washington State with a permanent four-day work week at full pay for its employees.
You will work extra hours this year to pay for county employees to work one day less each week.
We work more so they work less. The County’s own resolution says the 32-hour schedule saved approximately $2 million over two years. Restoring a standard 40-hour work week would recover a significant share of that cost without raising a single tax. The County never seriously considered it. Instead they are asking for $4.5 million a year, permanently, more than double what the schedule supposedly saved. Under RCW 84.55, this levy resets the tax base with no end date. It compounds every year, forever. You will not read that in the campaign literature.
State law gave the County Council a specific tool to protect low-income seniors, disabled residents, and disabled veterans from this exact kind of tax burden. The Council chose not to use it. So the people on this island who are already managing inflation on fixed incomes, who have no way to increase their Social Security checks, and who have no four-day work weeks of their own, are being asked to permanently fund someone else’s. Renters will see it in higher rents. Homeowners will see it compound forever. And if we say yes now, what is the argument against a three-day work week in 2031?
Voting No does not close parks or cut senior services. It tells the County Council to do what the rest of us have already done: go back to pre-pandemic realities, match workloads to pay, and make the hard choices before asking the public to carry the cost. I believe in community investment. But a government that locks in benefits for its own employees before protecting its most vulnerable residents is not acting in our interest.
Demand accountability before permanence. Vote No on Proposition No. 1.
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Trim the county budget….no place to trim you say? There is no rule that we have to maintain the champagne services we currently enjoy while many of the taxpayers paying for them are living on a beer budget. I am voting no – if properly taxes increase people who are in economic need of these service will have to move off island or increase dependence on services…as the song goes “there is a hole in the bucket….”
An excellent summary! Our three votes will be joining you in voting NO on this levy.
My pension has an annual 3% COLA cap so we are well behind the 2021-2024 inflation of 21%. Our 2026 property tax bill shows an increase of 23% over 2025 while our assessed valuation only increased by 5% and as most seniors can attest, Social Security “increases” barely cover the Medicare Part B premium increase leaving no discretionary income for other purposes like increased home insurance, increased electricity costs, or increased taxes.
Only $22 a month on average? Half of the county paying less and the other half paying MORE. Over the past eight years we, like many others here, have seen our property valuation double. Although that looks nice on a balance sheet, we can’t spend it so where is the money to come from? And like many folks here our income falls between the poor, who qualify for assistance, and the wealthy who can just write a check.
In particular the article cites the County’s new workweek. Without discussing the pro’s and con’s let’s just recognize that by cutting hours by 20% for the same compensation county employee’s received a 20% increase in pay adjusting it commensurate with inflation, we should all be so lucky.
So we’re voting NO! Not because we’re angry or don’t like our neighbors, but because we can’t afford it. It’s time for the County Council to step up with a sharp pencil, keep what is necessary, cut the niceties and assure a cost effective organization. Theirs is a hard task, I don’t envy them.
Don’t look now but the state has finally found workarounds (those hated loopholes?) to implement a state income tax in addition to the wealth tax just enacted. Both the wealth tax and the income tax apply to high income citizens, that is, those with an income over 1 million. Who cares about them, make them pay, heck make them pay even more!
Washington voters approved an income tax in 1932. But a year later, a divided state Supreme Court tossed it. Since then, voters have rejected variations of the idea multiple times, most recently in 2010 when the income threshold for individuals was $200,000.
However taxing entities whether the state, county, or our numerous commissions with levy lifts, tax on housing sales etc. will never, let me repeat, never have enough. There’s that shiny new object just around the corner that they must provide to the public or the government bureaucracies…..
And do you think it stops at a million. Heck no, there is still that entire middle class to tax. Note the last tax attempt was for incomes above $200,00…..the range of many working couples. History shows between inflation and lowering of limits the tax creeps lower and lower into the middle class….hold on to your wallets folks you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Too much spent on activist programs. No wonder the budget is out of control. Get back to the basics only.
And please, end the 32 hour work week along the way; just not fair to working people.
Work the budget items better and come back to the voters after trimming the activist line items.
Btw…don’t clump the Sherriff’s office into climate change and woke and dei nonsense.
Voted NO for this special election.
I’m voting no to help get the budget back on track. It’s time for the County to look inward. If the County needs help in this area, then let others that have the expertise help. We have done this in several different ways with Tax Districts. Ask for help, that’s ok. There’s a lot of very good individuals who will and can step up even if it’s through Sub Committees. Let’s get this under control please.