Liberty Lake considers new sales tax for police department expansion and improvements

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — Voters in Liberty Lake will decide the future of a new sales tax when ballots are sent out in a couple weeks.

City officials say raising taxes is necessary to expand the police department and hire more officers as people continue moving to the area in the coming years.

The city says the 0.1% sales tax would generate an estimated $750,000 per year to help fund the city’s police department.

Right now, the city has two officers per thousand residents.

“We expect about 23,000 residents in town and so we would have to add about 15 officers over and above the current force in order to maintain that ratio so in that way we would be growing,” Liberty Lake city administrator Mark McAvoy said.

City officials say if this sales tax passes and the population of Liberty Lake continues to grow, that sales tax will continue to generate more funding they hope will keep pace with the growing cost of operating the police department.

McAvoy said the city would also need to expand the current public safety building before hiring more police officers. That project is already estimated at $8.7 million, part of which could be funded by the sales tax.

If passed by voters, McAvoy says the city also wants to invest more into its emergency management department.

“We’ve seen in recent years with fires west of us, and most recently this year in Spokane, the need to have those plans not only buttoned up and then to do things to exercise against them so that we’re fully prepared all the time,” McAvoy said.

Supporters of the tax are emphasizing the need to have a dedicated source for public safety funding as the city grows. No one volunteered to write a statement against the measure in the county voter’s guide.