(The Center Square) – The political runway for a major tax proposal this November is shrinking after a task force developing recommendations to help inform that ballot measure pushed its timeline to June.
The Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force launched last fall with an “aggressive goal” to finalize those recommendations in May. Some members discussed plans in April to hold their final meeting on May 7, before releasing a report sometime in the following weeks; now they have another meeting on June 2.
Emilie Cameron, one of the task force conveners and president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, has framed the delay as an opportunity to refine the outcome of what she called an “iterative process.”
“We had a really aggressive goal to be able to finalize those recommendations in May over the course of eight meetings, but this is an important process,” Camerson told The Center Square on Thursday.
She said the task force hopes to hold a press conference during the second week of June to release its final report. Those recommendations are intended to help elected officials address public safety issues stemming from a lack of interconnectivity between the criminal justice and behavioral health systems.
The effort follows a tax proposal that voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2023 to replace the local jail.
Critics at the time argued that the proposal was merely a capital plan that lacked funding for ongoing operations and didn’t address other regional priorities, such as expanding behavioral health services.
Elected officials must submit a tax proposal by Aug. 4 for it to appear on the November 2026 ballot.
When asked whether regional officials would have enough time to draft a proposal and build support for a tax if the recommendations are released in June — leaving about two months before the August deadline — Cameron said she hasn’t discussed the specifics of a ballot measure with any jurisdiction in the county.
“We’re all well aware of what the county’s timing would need to be to place a ballot measure on the November ballot, but … I just haven’t been a part of those conversations,” Cameron said Thursday.
Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson mentioned during a meeting at the start of May that the dais had received a copy of the task force’s draft recommendations.
The Center Square obtained the document in a records request last week, but Cameron said much of the report has changed since then.
“I know you’ve seen an initial draft; I will tell you that it has evolved since,” she told The Center Square.
The “confidential” draft is built around two themes: creating a coordinated public safety and behavioral health system under a cross-sector governance and accountability council; and investing in right-sized justice facilities alongside community-based treatment, diversion, reentry and housing infrastructure.
The recommendations say taxpayers are subsidizing a revolving door without a coordinated system.
Regarding funding for the recommended facilities, the draft report suggests enacting a public safety tax.
“Neither investment succeeds without the other. Modernized justice facilities without the community infrastructure to divert, treat, and receive people back will not deliver the outcomes the public expects,” according to the draft report.
“A network of community facilities without justice facilities capable of safely and humanely holding people who must be incarcerated leaves a critical gap in the system,” the draft continues.
Cameron said the core idea is that investments in infrastructure should not be about one or the other.
She said Spokane needs a range of comprehensive facilities that are adequately funded and staffed.
“These go hand in hand; it’s not an either-or safe or healthy. It’s safe and healthy, and this broad cross-section of the communities is telling our jurisdictions to move these forward together,” Cameron said.
