Spokane park levy put on hold

Apr. 30—Voters will have to wait longer to weigh in on whether the city of Spokane should increase property taxes in order to make significant investments in the park system.

A 20-year property tax levy in support of Spokane Parks, originally expected to be put before voters in February, was delayed for a second time on Monday.

The Spokane City Council voted to punt the levy to February , despite a call from the Spokane Park Board, which voted unanimously on April 11 to urge the City Council to not approve any more delays.

"Every month or season that we wait on the levy is a month or season we go without enhanced security, renovated and open restrooms and playgrounds, along with other things the citizens of Spokane said they wanted to see in our parks system," board member Greta Gilman said at that meeting.

The levy calls for raising $225 million over 20 years — or roughly $4.5 million per year — to pay for three new parks and more than 30 new playgrounds, among a number of other investments. Volunteers, parks officials and members of the Park Board worked on the proposal for more than two years before proposing the levy be placed on the February 2024 ballot. It would be the first systemwide investment in neighborhood parks since 1999, according to the Park Board.

The parks levy was deferred once late last year to the August ballot, after some council members, aware that the large public safety tax increase ballot measure approved Monday was coming, were worried that the sizable parks levy could poison the well for voters asked to then approve another $38.5 million in property taxes annually. Earlier this month, when Mayor Lisa Brown unveiled her proposal for that larger tax increase on the August ballot, she raised concerns that having the parks levy on the same ballot could make it more likely for one or both to fail.

She originally proposed pushing the parks levy to November. On Monday, the City Council voted to push it even further to February.

Council members in support of another delay argued that waiting until February, creating more distance between the sizable public safety and parks tax asks, would make it more likely that the parks levy would be approved by voters.

In addition, the size of the parks department's budget will be significantly influenced by whether voters approve the larger tax increase in August. The parks department budget is automatically equal to 8% of the city's general fund, which will either significantly increase or decrease starting in 2025 depending on whether the August levy is approved.

"I think this is the best way forward to make the park levy successful," Councilman Zack Zappone said Monday.

Councilmen Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle both opposed the additional delay, however. Their district, which covers northeast Spokane and much of downtown, has historically had less investment in neighborhood parks than the city as a whole, and would receive a slightly larger share of the improvements through the parks levy.

"I think this is a mistake, and it will have a really negative impact on my district in particular," Cathcart said. "If anyone has spent any time in the parks in northeast Spokane, it is embarrassing."

Bingle and Cathcart, who opposed the details of the mayor's larger tax proposal, argued that the parks levy may have passed earlier this year if it had not been deferred once already.

But the rest of the City Council argued that the larger levy needed to take priority. If approved, that property tax will bring in tens of millions of dollars to enhance public safety services in the city, but perhaps more pressingly, it will help fill a massive hole in the city's budget created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is a super unfortunate situation we find ourselves in," said Councilwomen Kitty Klitzke, who took office in January. "It's not the situation I want to be in. I would have also loved to see us be in the black before I got here."