Seattle Liberals Reject Two Attempted Tax Hikes

First the Metropolitan King County Council's Budget and Fiscal Management Committee voted down a proposal by Councilmember Julia Patterson that would have asked voters to maintain public-health and human-service programs by raising the property tax on a $400,000 home about $40 a year.

Then County Executive Kurt Triplett's proposal to raise the sales tax by one-tenth of a percent languished when not a single council member moved for its adoption. That tax would have been split with cities and would have paid for criminal-justice, health-and-human-service programs.

"Enough. We've done enough tax raising," Councilmember Reagan Dunn said before the property-tax vote.