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Editor:
Sometimes things creep up on us in life. Week after week, month after month, things happen. Let’s take the bits and pieces and put them all together so we can see the totality of taxes passed by the City in just the past six months.
On Aug. 19, 2025, the Council unanimously approved a .1% public safety sales tax increase. According to the discussion and the agenda packet information, that tax will yield the city $1 million per year.
Dec. 2, 2025, the Council narrowly approved doubling the utility tax beginning Jan. 1 and ending in 18 months. Then-Council Pesident Tibbott’s presentation regarding the tax stated it will generate $3.2 million in 2026. Since it will sunset half way through 2027, the total revenue next year will be approximately $1.6 million.
A new year and new increases. On Jan. 6 Council approved raising transportation impact fees as of July 1. These are fees developers pay for transportation and infrastructure improvements. There isn’t a lot of development going on presently so a revenue amount isn’t included in this overall view.
On Jan. 13 the Council voted 5-2 to approve a 0.1% Transportation Benefit District sales tax, moving Edmonds’ sales tax to 10.7%, tying for highest in the state. The projections from this meeting showed the city raising $660,000 in 2026 and approximately $1 million each year from 2027-2036.
So, let’s add it up for 2026:
Public Safety Tax = $ 1 million
Utility Tax = $3.2 million
Transportation Impact Fees = Doubling but unknown, so no dollar amount included here (but it will be something)
Transportation Benefit Tax = $660,000
Grand Total = $4.86 million
Bits and pieces add up!
Ann Christiansen
Edmonds
City decisions don’t hit residents all at once. They arrive one vote at a time. But when you step back and look at the last six months together, the cumulative impact is impossible to ignore.
Since August, the City has approved multiple tax increases:
A 0.1% public safety sales tax, projected to raise $1 million per year.
A doubling of the utility tax, approved in December, expected to generate $3.2 million in 2026 alone.
A 0.1% Transportation Benefit District sales tax, approved in January, raising Edmonds’ sales tax to 10.7%—tied for the highest in the state—and projected to raise $660,000 in 2026.
Higher transportation impact fees, with revenue still unquantified.
That puts known new revenue in 2026 at roughly $4.86 million, before counting impact fees.
Ann is right to ask residents to slow down and look at the totality—not just individual votes.
This matters because we’re not done. With reports that the Mayor may seek another levy lid lift as soon as June, City leadership should understand the moment they’re in. After November’s levy, public patience is thinner, trust is strained, and the next ask will be harder.
Ignoring that reality doesn’t make it go away—it makes it worse.
Like the frog slowly brought up to full boil in the pot of water. How did this happen? Well, gradually; then suddenly.
What we should expect now is a much smaller levy‑lid‑lift request—if any at all. With these newly identified revenues and the better-than-expected November 2025 financial statement, the City finally has a budget that carries us through 2027 without service cuts. That fundamentally changes the narrative we’ve been hearing for the past year. A levy lid lift was previously framed as urgent and unavoidable; the updated numbers show that is no longer the case.
Given this improved outlook, there is no justification for rushing a levy lid lift onto the ballot this year. Instead, the City has breathing room—time to step back, evaluate the structural issues honestly, and develop a comprehensive, long‑term financial recovery plan. That work should be led by the new Council, which now has both the mandate and the opportunity to reset the City’s fiscal trajectory.
But that opportunity only matters if they use their time wisely. If the Council approaches this with discipline, transparency, and a willingness to rethink past assumptions, Edmonds can stabilize its finances without burdening residents with another large tax increase. If they squander it, we’ll be right back where we started—facing another crisis of their own making.
This is the moment for thoughtful planning, not another rushed levy.
Good summary! I’ll add more facts in my attempt to fill out a broad picture of revenues. 1)The City’s $4.8M of new tax revenues should be added to the $6M of existing property tax revenues from their decision to redirect the spending on the fire district contract to 2026 spending on various city departments – most notably Police wages and benefits. 2) The scorekeeping is now $10.8 million of new spending power for the City Council. Hey – the total general fund revenue is only about $50M. 3) Can’t the City stop raising taxes on we-the-people and the developers and the customers of our small businesses and get on with doing their jobs? The public works department projects slowed too much after Oscar A and Rob E left. The Council funded resolving a significant part of the backlog in building maintenance several years ago when they issued a bond, but the Public Works department hasn’t done the work to spend all those funds. 4) Importantly – Council policy requires a timely written financial recovery plan to solve their fiscal emergency, and they’re late in creating that. Granted – it’s complex, but it’s one of the top three things the City needed to do in 2026. Instead the Mayor advised a $19.5 M permanent, escalating property tax increase, then Tibbot resigned. Where’s the approved recovery plan?