Kent City Council considers sales tax hike to hire more police

The sales tax in Kent could go up next year to hire about 10 police officers under a proposal approved by the Kent City Council.

The council voted 7-0 on June 17 to approve a resolution to direct the mayor and staff to take the steps to prepare an ordinance for later in 2025 to adopt an 0.1% sales tax (1 cent every $10 purchase or 10 cents every $100 purchase) to raise about $3.8 million per year. The council can adopt the new tax without voter approval.

City Attorney Tammy White told the council that if ends up approving a sales tax hike, Jan. 1, 2026 would be the earliest the tax would start based on state Department of Revenue requirements. The funds would first be available in March 2026.

“It’s about one-third of what we know we need,” Mayor Dana Ralph said prior to the vote. “It does not solve the problem, but it’s a small step in that direction.”

City leaders, led by Ralph and Police Chief Rafael Padilla, heavily lobbied the Legislature this year and in 2024 to allow Kent to enact a 0.3% sales tax to raise about $12 million per year to hire 30 or so officers.

“It’s very disheartening and very frustrating,” Ralph said about the failure of the Legislature to even move Kent’s proposals out of committee the past two years. “Our residents deserve better.”

The 2025 Legislature, however, approved Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2015, which allows cities and counties to enact an 0.1% sales tax for criminal justice. To be eligible to impose this sales tax, cities and counties must first meet the eligibility criteria to apply for the new grant program also adopted through this same legislation.

That’s part of the next steps city staff will take to get approval from the Washington State Criminal Justice and Training Commission.

The established eligibility criteria, according to city documents, include submitting to required training, adopting model policies established by the state Attorney General’s Office, and implementing data collection and reporting requirements. The city of Kent meets all eligibility criteria that the state currently has in place. However, the city cannot submit documentation to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission until after July 27.

Cities must apply to get a portion of the $100 million criminal justice grant fund available, which is separate from the sales tax revenue. But Ralph said that money would not go toward hiring officers because it’s a one-time grant, not an ongoing revenue measure.

City leaders have argued for years that the Legislature needs to help Kent make up for revenue lost because of the streamlined sales tax. The Legislature voted in 2007 (effective in 2008) to change the state to a destination-based sales tax, taking away millions of dollars of tax revenue Kent had received from the many distribution and wholesale warehouses in the city. The state paid sales tax mitigation funds to Kent for many years, but the last payment of $2 million is scheduled to end in 2026.

Meanwhile, the city of Kent adopted a business and occupation (B&O) tax in 2013 to help compensate for lost sales tax revenue. That tax now brings in about $24 million per year, according to city budget documents.

Hiring more officers

Padilla, who has lobbied for 30 or more new officers to bring the staff up to 200 in order to serve a city of about 137,000, told the council how he proposes to use an additional $3 million per year to pay for 10 more officers.

“This gives us an opportunity to move the needle and be more proactive,” Padilla said.

The first thing the chief would do is increase bicycle officer patrols. Two officers and a sergeant would be added to give the force two teams of four officers.

“We’d bring on a team with high visibility for patrols in the downtown core,” said Padilla who added business owners and residents say they want to see bicycle patrol officers back.

“They’ll address the public transit (bus) station and ride bikes during major festivals,” he said. “They’ll have the ability to be present and accesibile vs. an officer in a patrol car who is going somewhere on a call.”

Padilla also would add three detectives and a sergeant for a street narcotics team and human trafficking intervention.

“It will help fill a gap,” Padilla said. “We have overburdened detectives.”

Padilla said in the past a task force focused on human trafficking included investigations to go after pimps as far away as Las Vegas and Arizona.

The chief said a task force would look to help rescue victims, go after the people that buy sex and go after those who organize the human trafficking.

On the drug side, detectives would focus on catching dealers.

Padilla also proposes hiring two officers for a new unit to focus on community-based patrols as people tell him they want to see officers in their neighborhoods or near their businesses.

With more officers, the city would need more support personnel. Padilla said the $3 million would also go toward hiring a prosecutor, a court clerk and a corrections officer for the city jail.

City revenue

City Finance Director Paula Painter told the council the proposal of a 0.1% sales tax would bring in an estimated $3.88 million per year based on 2024 sales tax revenue. She added that sales tax numbers in May, however, were lower than in 2024 so the estimate might need to be adjusted.

Painter said to hire a new officer costs about $200,000 per year per employee, which includes salaries, benefits and the use of a police vehicle, part of the Kent Police Department’s take a vehicle home program.

Council takes

Council President Satwinder Kaur said prior to the vote that the city has few options in trying to hire more police officers.

“I don’t like the idea of increasing the sales tax but it’s the tool we have,” Kaur said. “Businesses and residents have told us they are willing to pay for more resources.”

Kaur added she will want to take a closer look at the numbers before voting on the ordinance to adopt the sales tax.

Councilmember Toni Troutner said if city leaders want to lobby the Legislature in the future to approve more tax revenue for the city, the council should approve this new tool.

“If we go back to the Legislature for additional funding, it’s important to have this in place,” Troutner said.

Nobody on the council talked about approving the sales tax hike without going to voters. But Councilmember Brenda Fincher raised concerns about the proposed increase.

“I support more officers but I hate the idea,” Fincher said. “Even though it’s 1/10% and I hear people can afford it. …I hear about others who cannot afford it. I don’t have another answer (for revenue), but I want to wait to see what’s put before us.”