Here’s what the Pierce County Council has decided on a new public-safety tax
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pierce County Council approved a 0.1% sales tax to fund public safety.
- Tax will raise about $30 million annually; 80% to courts and sheriff.
- Ordinance takes effect July 1; 20% for new jail and detention center investments.
After more than four hours of debate on Tuesday night, the Pierce County Council voted 5-2 to approve raising the sales tax in Pierce County one-tenth of 1% to fund public safety.
At least five members needed to vote in favor of the controversial tax increase. Council members Dave Morell, Rosie Ayala, Bryan Yambe, Jani Hitchen and Robyn Denson voted in favor. Council members Paul Herrera and Amy Cruver voted against. The ordinance is expected to be approved and signed by county executive Ryan Mello.
The tax amounts to 10 cents for every $100 spent, with groceries, medicine and certain medical supplies and hygiene products exempt, according to the county. It will generate about $30 million a year in revenue. Eighty percent will be spent on existing services within the county court system and Sheriff’s Office, and 20% will be spent on new investments like a new jail and juvenile detention center, as previously reported by The News Tribune. It will go into effect July 1, per council documents.
The vote came after more than two-and-a-half hours of passionate public testimony and two hours of council questions and debate.
Morell split with the council Republicans to vote in favor of the tax, saying he understood that nobody wants another tax, “but I must be honest about the realities that we face.”
“Our sheriff’s deputies and correction officers are overworked, underpaid and understaffed. In the aftermath of these recent tragedies [in Key Peninsula], we must ask ourselves, ‘What if we were fully staffed?’” he said of a stabbing attack that left four women dead. “What if our deputies didn’t have to wait for backup? What if the court orders were delivered in a timely manner? Could we have prevented further harm? Could we have responded faster and saved lives? These are not hypothetical questions. They are the urgent truth of our situation.”
Morell said he would bring a resolution to the council to put together a Justice Center master plan to ensure government spending is done efficiently and without waste.
Before the vote, Sheriff Keith Swank, Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett and finance director Julie Demuth expressed their support for the public safety tax.
Demuth said without a new stable revenue stream for justice-related services, Pierce County would have to cut up to 37 sheriff’s deputies, 16 corrections deputies, 55 court positions and 35 other core public service roles to close a structural deficit that is expected to grow to $34 million by 2028.
Other “significant, largely unavoidable cost pressures” the county is facing that are outpacing existing revenue growth include a state-mandated increase in public defenders (a $32 million cost for 2026-2031), increasing tort claim liabilities ($320 million), constitutionally-required jail medical services (up $6 million since 2020), labor contracts with law enforcement and corrections officers, a new jail ($428 million) and a new juvenile detention and rehabilitation center (between $200 million and $250 million), Demuth said in her presentation.
Pierce County’s largest funding source is property tax, which is capped at a 1% annual increase under state law. Demuth said as a result, revenue growth has not kept pace with inflation or rising service costs.
What did council members say?
Democrats on the Pierce County Council voiced their support for the tax measure, with empathy for residents under financial constraints. Republicans, with the exception of Morell, painted the tax measure as an imposition on taxpayers they couldn’t afford.
Vice chair Herrera said he read hundreds of emails from constituents over the last few weeks.
“What I hear is that the hard-working Pierce County families simply cannot afford another tax, and they’re not very happy of the process of this being imposed on them without their voice,” he said. “This Justice Fund is just one more tax that’s stacked on many local taxes and taxes coming from Washington state that we already pay.”
Herrera insinuated that the Justice and Public Safety Funding Group — made up of representatives from the offices of prosecuting attorney, sheriff, executive, finance and county clerk — did not seriously study how to better fund public safety, but rather had “only a conversation on how to divide up the money collected from this tax.”
Cruver spoke for nearly 40 minutes, oscillating between a variety of topics, including House Bill 2015, the Keep Washington Working Act, Senate Bill 5974, the proposed state “Millionaire’s Tax,” greenhouse gas emissions, flood control and state budget issues. At one point, Ayala called in a point of order questioning Cruver about the relevancy of her statements to the vote at hand.
“This tax isn’t really about the penny [per $10 spent]. It’s about creating a system of controls and authority. It’s about transferring wealth and expanding government programs under the guise of public safety,” Cruver said. “I don’t believe for a minute that the events in Gig Harbor would have changed if we had money for deputies.”
In the final comment before the vote, Chair Hitchen urged support for the tax. She said it was a Band-Aid solution to many problems that have come overdue, and that will only get more expensive to fix with time.
“This funding source is the first glimpse in actually trying to get on top of some of these things,” Hitchen said. “The deferred maintenance in technology and infrastructure around public safety is what we are trying to address, so that we can maintain what we have.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2026 at 7:33 PM.
