During the pandemic, Kenmore received one-time federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding intended to help communities respond to extraordinary circumstances and invest in recovery. ARPA dollars were never meant to permanently expand the City's ongoing operating budget.
Instead of using this temporary funding to strengthen long-term financial stability, the City incorporated it into ongoing spending commitments through the Special Projects Fund, which is also part of the “Expanded” service level budget category, not “Core or Basic services."
As the federal funding has all been spent, the City is left with structural budget pressures that cannot be sustained by existing revenues.
If you take home $20 an hour (after taxes, SS and healthcare) that is an additional 27 hours of your labor just for Prop 1 going to the City.
Prop 1 authorizes an immediate increase to $1,249 for the average Kenmore home. If approved, you will work 62.5 hours - over 1.5 weeks - to pay to the City of Kenmore every year.
$40-$50 a month could be a prescription, a medical copay, part of a utility bill, groceries for a family, gasoline for the commute, a child's activity, a gym membership, a streaming service, or put into savings.
For a household already managing a tight budget, another mandatory monthly expense means less money available for all of those things.
Unlike entertainment or other discretionary purchases, a tax is not something a household can simply choose to cancel when money gets tight.
The average Kenmore home currently pays $697 of property tax to the City.
The ordinance authorizes an immediate increase in that tax to $1,249 (79.26%). That tax would increase 6% every year, more than doubling the current tax on an average home to $1,672 in 2032.
The City says it is only planning on actually raising the average tax to $1,066 (52.8%) in 2027, with a total tax of $1,426 in 2032, again, more than double the current amount.
The cumulative additional tax on the average home will be between $7,432 and $8,715 during the life of the Levy.
Prop 1 does not require the City to fund any new or specific programs and allows the Council to “prioritize, modify, alter, make substitutions to” any component “as it determines is in the best interests of the City.”
Most of the spending mentioned in City materials are for existing programs run by outside agencies like King County’s ARCH and Regional Homelessness Authority programs, and not for projects actually in the city of Kenmore.
Prop 1 asks for hard earned dollars to continue to fund expanded and basic programs that Kenmore was never able to sustain after federal funds were exhausted.
In the face of fiscal realities, rather than modify course, the City of Kenmore wants to levy dollars to send out of Kenmore to provide services for broader King County and regional initiatives. There is no new programming resulting from Prop 1.
We prefer that funding is directed toward tangible, locally delivered services and programming. There is no mechanism to assure that Kenmore residents will receive any benefit from the increased taxes.
Equity means being thoughtful about who pays and who benefits. When working families and low- to middle-income residents are asked to contribute more, they should see meaningful benefits in their own community.
Direct programming and human services for Kenmore residents is a need that we currently do not have a solution for. This levy does not change that.
Washington’s 1% limit, enacted by voters, applies only to existing properties. New construction, new development, and other taxes and fees are not subject to the 1% cap. In Kenmore’s case, these sources have been significant and have grown far faster than inflation.
Revenue sources include surface water management fees, park impact fees, Real Estate Excise Tax (REET), and transit impact fees.
Kenmore’s utility, cell, and cable taxes have more than doubled in five years.
The City is projecting $7.3 million in revenue from traffic cameras in 2027 (and $11.4 million in 2029), a program that only began in 2024.
Total Kenmore revenues have increased from approximately $19 million in 2019 to over $32 million in 2025, a 60% increase.
Inflation during that period has been less than 26%.
This tax will show up quickly in higher rents and in the price of almost every good and service in Kenmore — grocery prices, cleaners, barbers and hairdressers, the bowling alley, doctors and dentists, daycares, Ostrom’s, CVS, and every other business in the city. Every purchase you make will be impacted.
This is a regressive tax that will hit working families and limited-income neighbors the hardest.
Addressing “housing affordability” is one of the specified goals of the Levy. Yet, this Levy will increase the cost of all new construction, including the “missing middle” and alternative housing the Council says it wants.
Property tax is a significant cost of owning an apartment building. Landlords will pass this increase along to renters at the first opportunity.
The “affordable housing” component of the levy are actually payments to other agencies like ARCH and King County Regional Homelessness Authority to support programs outside of Kenmore. None of that money is earmarked for any Kenmore housing.
In 2024, the Council borrowed $12,800,000 through Councilmanic Bonds (voter approval not required). These bonds need to be repaid.
It is likely the City will need to borrow significant funds to complete the Public Works facility currently being constructed near Kenmore Middle School.