Pierce County just passed a new tax and funded a homeless village. That’s a big deal | Opinion
Compromise can take many forms.
Sometimes, it’s a kumbaya affair, with everyone emerging happy and holding hands.
Other times — particularly in politics — it can be messy and quarrelsome, with elected leaders forced to give just a little bit more than they’re comfortable with in pursuit of a particular goal or objective.
On Tuesday, the Pierce County Council provided an example of the latter. Over the course of a meeting that stretched an obscene seven hours, they passed a one-tenth of 1% sales tax increase to fund affordable housing and approved a pair of ordinances that set the stage for construction of a micro-housing village for people experiencing chronic homelessness, a project championed by Republican Executive Bruce Dammeier.
It was tense. It was tangled. It was fraught with emotion and unknowns. Horses were traded.
It was also a reminder that when competing political interests come together, by choice or necessity, it’s still possible to bridge the divide — at least as long as everyone gets something they desperately want in return.
As complicated as politics can be, sometimes it’s that simple.
Going into Tuesday’s marathon County Council meeting — which attracted an overflow in-person crowd and was marred by technical difficulties for those who tuned in via Zoom — it was unclear how the chips would fall, and the drama was palpable from the start.
Although the affordable housing sales tax and the micro-home development were separate issues, you didn’t need to be a keen observer of county government to realize the political dynamics at play. Democrats wanted to finally pass an affordable housing sales tax while a majority of Republicans wanted to see Dammeier’s village move forward, and both needed support from the other side of the aisle to prevail.
There was surely a reason County Council Chair Ryan Mello, a Tacoma Democrat, scheduled both votes for the same long night, with the sales tax vote on the agenda first. Tackling them separately would have gotten everyone home by dinner, but this was about political leverage, not convenience.
As we were reminded last year, passing a sales tax increase requires a supermajority of five County Council votes, meaning this one — which will raise an estimated $20 million annually for the development of affordable housing — depended on support from the council’s four Democrats and at least one Republican, most likely South Hill’s Dave Morell. In December, a vote on the tax increase was delayed once it became clear that there wasn’t a conservative willing to stand behind the idea. The obvious question on Tuesday was whether oversight and spending accountability measures Morell and Mello hashed out via amendment would be enough to win his support this time around.
There was also a thornier variable to contend with: trust. Would Morell side with Democrats and vote in favor of the tax increase before the fate of the micro-home village was known? While he’s more of a rock ‘n’ roll guy at heart, on this night, he took a cue from Kenny Rogers and gambled, at least politically. Even if he clearly recognizes the need and his support seems genuine, the gamesmanship afoot put him in a tough spot.
The intrigue was only just beginning. After a brief recess, the council returned to grapple with two ordinances tied to Dammeier’s ambitious supportive housing project, which aims to develop permanent housing and support for more than 250 chronically homeless people on an environmentally sensitive piece of property near Spanaway. Modeled after a similar development in Austin, Texas, the Tacoma Rescue Mission has been chosen to operate the village.
It’s a complicated project, for many reasons, and one that clearly still gives Democrats on the council considerable pause. With roughly $22 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds at stake and a myriad of potential environmental and land-use obstacles in play, it’s why they’ve put it through the wringer since it was officially presented to council last year.
Earlier this month, with a possible hint of exasperation, Dammeier’s executive staff delivered a 218-page response to the council’s questions and concerns. The extensive report sought to assure skeptics that wetlands would be unharmed and that the development was possible in compliance with environmental regulations, with no impact on surrounding floodplains. The 86-acre property off Spanaway Loop Road where the development is planned is the only viable location for the micro-home village, the report maintained.
Still, council Democrats — employing the limited political power they enjoy as the majority — weren’t in the mood to completely roll over. They successfully attached a provision limiting the size of some structures within the development, designed to reduce the impact on the environment and protect local groundwater. Perhaps most critical of all, they established a staggered release of ARPA funds, with safeguards ensuring that permits have been obtained and potential land-use challenges have been resolved before the land is physically altered for development.
By just after 10 p.m., the council had a deal. With a long-sought victory secured through the passage of an affordable housing sales tax, a majority of Democrats put lingering misgivings aside and allowed Dammeier’s village — which is starting to feel like a legacy project for the two-term executive — to proceed.
Did everyone get exactly what they wanted and go home happy? Not at all.
Is Pierce County now in a much better place to address homelessness and a crisis-level shortage of affordable housing?
It certainly is, and that’s really all that matters, regardless of how the political sausage was made.
