If rising home values already grow tax collections, why does Prop 1 ask for more than double?

Seattle's 2019 library levy expires this year. Its replacement, Proposition 1, asks voters for $479.76 million over seven years — more than double the $219.1 million raised last time. The honest answer starts with a state law most voters have never heard of.

The dollar figure has more than doubled roughly every 7-14 years since 1998 — but so has the library system it funds: 27 branches, rising e-book costs, and a Central Library due for major upkeep.

The case for, and the case for caution

Should Link Light Rail go elevated through Rainier Valley?

It isn't on any ballot — but it's the single most persistent transit-safety debate in the city.

Between Mount Baker and Rainier Beach stations, Link Light Rail runs at street level down the middle of Martin Luther King Jr. Way S — the only long at-grade stretch left on the line. Trains share the road with cars, bikes, and pedestrians at dozens of intersections, and it shows: since service began in 2009, trains have collided with vehicles roughly every 40-45 days on average.

Concept illustration, not an official Sound Transit engineering plan — for orientation only.

How do you actually get bike lanes on Lake Washington Boulevard?

Also not on a ballot. Just the closest thing Seattle has to a permanent pilot program.

Lake Washington Boulevard has been Seattle's most contested "temporary" street since 2020, when a pandemic-era closure between Seward Park and Mount Baker opened it to walking, rolling, and biking. Six years, one task force, one visioning report, and one round of "fog line" traffic paint later, it still doesn't have a dedicated, permanent bike lane.

Representative concept, not an adopted SDOT/Parks design — widths and parking vary by block.

Part sales tax. Part property tax. Part everything else. Here's what it adds up to.

No single bill shows you the whole picture. Put every source together, and this is roughly how Seattle's general-purpose tax base actually breaks down.

Property tax and sales tax are close to even — but B&O and utility taxes, the two categories nobody talks about at dinner, are almost as large as either one.

Every tax, by which pocket it comes from

Your home, itemized

Seattle does levy its own city property tax — it's one of many taxing districts layered onto your bill, alongside the state, county, schools, and every voter-approved district. King County just bills and collects all of them together as one consolidated statement, rather than mailing a separate bill from each authority. For a home assessed at $864,000, the 2025 combined rate across every one of those districts was $9.19418 per $1,000 — a total bill of $7,943.77. Most regular levies can grow by roughly 1% a year without a new vote (new construction is an exception, added on top); nearly all of the recent increases beyond that come from voters approving new or renewed levies, not rising home values alone.

Every major levy: when it runs, and what it costs your household

Democracy Vouchers: the smallest line item, first-in-the-nation

Since 2017, every eligible Seattle resident gets vouchers to donate to city candidates who agree to spending limits — first-of-its-kind in the U.S. Voters renewed the funding levy in August 2025, raising it from $3M to $4.5M a year through 2035.

Business taxes: the ones that never touch your receipt

Nearly half of JumpStart revenue — originally earmarked for housing and equitable development — is now propping up Seattle's general fund.

What the sugar tax actually adds to what you buy

What Sound Transit adds on top

Property tax rate can rise up to 1%/yr without a new vote, per the original 2016 ballot measure, up to a $0.25/$1,000 statutory ceiling. Source: Sound Transit, Oct. 2025 presentation to its Board.

Who's actually deciding all of this

Every levy, ballot measure, and public-space fight above ultimately gets a vote from these people.