City Council members express hesitation with this proposed climate tax ballot measure
Bellingham residents will get a chance in three weeks to comment on a proposed property tax to help the city lower its carbon footprint, a measure that could raise an estimated $6 million annually for that effort.
But at least two city council members appeared reluctant to place the measure on the November ballot, citing the looming possibility of worldwide recession coupled with the skyrocketing rent and home prices in Whatcom County.
In a Committee of the Whole discussion Monday, June 6, Councilwoman Lisa Anderson said she’s heard opposition from Bellingham residents making less than $50,000 annually, college students, people on fixed incomes and others.
“I’ve made a very concerted effort to talk to people that perhaps their voices aren’t always the ones that are in front of us. Everybody’s concerned about climate. But overall the consensus I’ve had is that people are tax fatigued,” Anderson said.
Councilman Dan Hammill said he feared the measure would fail because it could be among two other special funding requests that voters could face in November — a renewal of the EMS levy and a possible new countywide tax for child care services.
Hammill said that a committee already should be working on gathering public support for the climate tax.
“I don’t know who the campaign team is, if there is a campaign team, if they have a strategy, if they have funding, where that process is at,” he said. “I don’t know how this is going to pass, practically speaking.”
Councilman Michael Lilliquist said that he supports letting the voters decide the measure.
“This won’t be cheap and it won’t be easy and there will be tradeoffs,” Lilliquist said. “Delay is unconscionable. We really can’t wait. We must shoulder this burden now because we created it.”
Forrest Longman, the city’s deputy finance director, told the council in a March 28 presentation that such a property tax would cost the owner of a $500,000 home between $186 and $248 a year.
Mayor Seth Fleetwood acknowledged these and other fears in a statement to the committee on Monday.
“I know that there have been some expressions of concern mentioned by some members of the community, which I’m sensitive to,” Fleetwood told the committee.
“That, regrettably, is the lay of the land right now. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a perfect time,” Fleetwood said.
But reversing the effects of global climate change is a “powerful and important ideal” and Bellingham could be a vanguard in that fight, he said.
“We could actually move the dial and promote to other cities how that can be done, and that’s what we’re proposing to do in Bellingham,” Fleetwood said.
Seth Vidaña, the city’s climate and energy manager, said the tax would:
▪ Help city residents and businesses switch to electricity for heating buildings and water.
▪ Encourage the use of electric cars and buses.
▪ Help lower-income residents with the cost of these changes.
Vidaña said the tax would provide a stable source of funding so the city could reduce its carbon emissions, help the city adapt to a changing climate — such as repeated flooding, smoky skies or heat waves — and ease the financial burden of climate change on its “vulnerable populations.”
“We have a lot of work, not much time to do it, and limited paths forward,” Vidaña told the committee.
City Council members will hold an online public hearing at 7 p.m. June 27 on whether to move forward with a proposed ballot measure to tax property owners.
According to the city’s timeline, a final version of the proposed initiative is scheduled for consideration July 11, and initiative documentation must be sent to the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office by Aug. 2 for it to make the Nov. 8 ballot.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 12:29 PM.
