Bellingham moves ahead with tax to fund public safety programs
Bellingham City Council members are moving forward on a sales tax to fund public safety programs, confident that its police department will soon meet all the requirements to impose the tax that are outlined in a recent state law.
On a unanimous vote Monday, City Council members approved a measure authorizing a sales tax of one-tenth of 1% earmarked for public safety. Before it takes effect, the tax requires a third and final vote that could come as early as Oct. 6.
Such a tax would cost Bellingham shoppers about 10 cents on a $100 purchase, according to the city. It would raise about $3.9 million for a range of public safety services in 2026, helping to plug an expected budget deficit of $10 million next year.
“If we do not implement this tax, we will have to come up with another way to close that gap,” Deputy City Administrator Forrest Longman told the council during a committee discussion Monday afternoon. “We’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit already.”
A new state law, HB 2015, allows local governments to impose such a tax for public safety and other uses if they meet certain criteria. The law also offers grants through the state Criminal Justice Training Commission.
Bellingham is on track to meet all the requirements for imposing the tax by Oct. 3, Longman said. That’s when enough police officers will have completed training in de-escalation techniques, which is among the requirements under the state law that allows cities to impose the tax. It was the only criteria that the Bellingham Police Department lacked, Longman said.
“We’ve arranged to have a trainer come to Bellingham and provide that training,” Longman said.
Consideration of the tax was first discussed at the council’s Aug. 25 meeting, when it was still unclear whether the city would qualify.
During Monday’s committee discussion, Councilman Dan Hammill said he was concerned that without the tax the city might lose specialized units to promote community policing and fight drug crime — the opioid epidemic in particular.
“Let’s talk about the things we’re gonna lose if we don’t do this,” Hammill said. “We’re gonna lose bike patrol, which is one of the more popular, well recognized community assets. The other piece that we could be losing is our upstream drug task force member, who is working on drug interdiction to prevent drugs from coming in to our community.”
Those two programs resumed recently after several years in mothballs because of a police staffing shortage.
The tax can be used for several programs that fall under the label of public safety, including law enforcement, domestic violence, public defenders, re-entry work for offenders and crime-reduction measures.
To be assessed starting in 2026, the tax must be submitted to the state Department of Revenue by Oct. 17.
