SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County Commissioners on Monday decided not to raise taxes for county operations despite facing a significant budget shortfall.
NonStop Local’s Morgan Ashley sat down with Commissioner Josh Kerns who assured that there would be no cuts to public safety.
“We have more deputies on the road right now than we have in any other time in the history of Spokane County,” Kerns said.
Kerns emphasized the focus on finding efficiencies in county government and growing the local economy to balance the budget without relying on a tax increase.
Instead of raising taxes, Kerns mentioned that county departments were asked to cut their budgets by 7 percent. Many cuts were from unfilled positions or retirements. Kerns noted that departments have either streamlined operations or found some positions unnecessary.
Looking ahead, Kerns highlighted that new properties contribute to the tax base, increasing revenue without raising taxes. “That’s one of the big things we saw was 1.4 billion dollars of new construction that will go on the tax roll,” he said.
The county portion of property taxes is just a small part of the overall bill, which also includes city, state school and local school taxes.
