Sound Stories. Sound Voices.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
You are on the KUOW archive site. Click here to go to our current site.
00000181-fa79-da89-a38d-fb7f2b910000KUOW is joining forces with other Seattle media outlets to highlight the homeless crisis in the city and region on Wednesday, June 29, 2017.The effort was modeled after a collaboration by more than 70 San Francisco outlets to focus a day of news attention on the issue and possible solutions.Read more about the Seattle project and check out our coverage below. Follow the city's coverage by using #SeaHomeless.HighlightsThe Jungle: an ongoing coverage project going into the notorious homeless encampment under Interstate 5.Ask Seattle's Homeless Community: KUOW is launching a Facebook group where anyone may ask a question about homelessness, but only people who have experienced it may answer. This was inspired by a recent event KUOW co-presented with Seattle Public Library and Real Change, where residents of the Jungle answered audience questions. No End In Sight: an award-winning investigative project from KUOW about King County's 10-year plan to end homelessness.

Who’ll be most taxed to help homeless? Poor people

Seattle has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country. And now Mayor Ed Murray is poised to ask for just a bit more to address the city’s homeless crisis.

And that could hurt low income families.

This week Seattle mayor scrapped a proposal to use a property tax levy to help the homeless. In that case, homeowners would have foot the bill.

Murray said raising the county sales tax by 0.1 percent would bring in more money — about $68 million.

But moving from a property tax to a sales tax shifts the burden to the poor.

Carl Davis, an analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Policy in Washington, D.C., says the research is clear.

“Sales taxes are regressive overall, meaning that they hit lower income families harder than middle or high income families, when you measure it relative to their household budget.” Davis said. “That makes it just a little bit harder for families struggling to make ends meet.”

Davis says the fairest way to raise revenue is with an income tax.

John Talton, economics columnist at the Seattle Times, says it's time to start thinking about the money we’re already spending.  

“We need to focus more on assessing what we're doing, and is it working before we go to taxpayers and say, OK we want twice as much money to put on this problem,” he said.

The mayor's proposal is one of a few tax hikes coming down the pike for Seattle and King County voters this year.

Correction, 1:45 p.m., 4/5/2017: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of the increase in the sales tax.