(The Center Square) – Faced with a $9 million shortfall ahead of next year, the Yakima City Council may ask voters to raise taxes despite passing a balanced budget in December to guide spending through 2026.
The city put out a survey in March asking voters if they’re willing to foot the bill or cut services to fill the hole before it’s too late. The council relied on reserves to balance a sizeable deficit last year, but as inflation outpaces revenues, they might resort to new tax proposals this time.
Gunnar Berg, a financial advisor with Barid Wealth, suggested a hybrid approach as the council ran through the survey on Tuesday. Of the 2,065 residents polled, 40% supported raising property taxes to cover police, fire and court services; 33% said no, and 27% wanted more information.
“We don’t really want to cut police and fire; I’m the last one that wants to do that,” Berg told the council, “[but] it was hard for me to find ways without raising revenue to achieve this.”
He suggested taking immediate cuts and implementing automatic fee increases in addition to a potential property or sales tax increase. State law allows the city to raise property taxes by 1% annually, but anything over that requires voter approval, including sales tax hikes.
The survey included a list of potential reductions, with most residents opting to cut spending on lobbying, travel, fireworks and a public art program. The Citizen Budget Advisory Committee provided an update on Tuesday and plans to return with recommendations in about a month.
The city also held several meetings to field community feedback. Some residents didn’t want to take cuts and favored a tax increase entirely. Councilmember Rick Glenn said there are things the city needs to do better, as police overtime and the justice system eat up millions in revenue.
“There’s 100,000 people in Yakima, and I think that’s about how many opinions there are about how we fix this problem,” Glenn said. “We’ve got to narrow it down a little bit.”
According to U.S. Census data, roughly 17% of Yakima residents live in poverty, higher than the rest of the state at 10.3% and the entire nation at 11.1%. Only 53.5% of residents own their home, down from 63.9% at the state level and 65% nationwide.
Raising revenues could help balance spending but at the expense of many residents who are already stretched thin. However, depending solely on cuts would result in losing essential public services that many residents rely on, with far-reaching effects on public safety altogether.
Another question on the survey asked residents if they would support raising their property tax bill by roughly $20 per month, knowing that it would cover police, fire and court services. Unlike the first question, which only gained 40% of the support, this question yielded a 57% favorability.
“It’s pretty popular to say, ‘Oh, I don’t own property, so I don’t pay property taxes,’” Glenn said. “As a landlord, I pay property taxes on the property I live in, but on every other property, the tenants are the ones that pay the taxes, so everyone pays property taxes whether they own or whether they rent.”
