MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents are being invited to three informational meetings to discuss a proposal to raise the sales tax by one-tenth of one percent to provide additional public safety funding. The proposal is on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.  

The first meeting is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. Monday in the city council meeting room at the Moses Lake Civic Center. The second is from 7 to 8 p.m. Sept 24 at the Park Orchard Elementary School cafeteria, 417 N. Paxson Dr; the third is from 7 to 8 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Pillar Rock Grill, 1373 Road F.2 Northeast. 

If the proposal is approved, the sales tax rate for the city would go to 8.6%. The increase would add 10 cents to each $100 spent.  

State law allows cities to raise sales taxes that meet qualifying criteria – which this proposal did – without a public vote. Moses Lake City Council members opted to ask voters because, said Mayor Dustin Swartz, council members wanted residents to have a chance to say yes or no. 

"We feel it's important to get public consensus on this particular topic," Swartz said. 

If it's approved, the money would go toward public safety services, including Moses Lake Police Department capital projects, MLPD staffing and retention, and other city operations related to criminal justice, according to the resolution putting the proposal on the ballot. The money can only be spent on criminal justice services. 

The proposal grew out of a deficit in the city's general fund, and council members' desire to reduce and eventually eliminate that deficit before it consumed the city's reserves. 

The general fund pays for a lot of city operations, including the Moses Lake Police Department. The projected deficit for 2026 was about $1 million in the general fund and street fund combined.  

City officials hired a consultant to make a six-year revenue forecast, which projected that deficit would grow if city officials didn’t make some changes. To that end, council members spent most of the spring working on a plan to get rid of the deficit, which the city calls a fiscal sustainability plan. 

Swartz said the fiscal sustainability process included projections about the future for all city departments, the MLPD included.  

"We're really trying to look at current levels of service and project that into the future," he said. 

The results, Swartz said, showed that rising costs were going to continue to affect all city operations.  

"We see a budget shortfall across the board," Swartz said.  

City officials conducted a survey of residents as part of the fiscal sustainability process. Some of the questions asked what city residents would be willing to pay more taxes to sustain. The results showed that residents would support a sales tax increase to pay for public safety services. 

The council passed the proposal on a 7-0 vote in June. Before the vote, council member Mark Fancher said that while he didn't like raising taxes at all, the sales tax was the least objectional choice, given the city's financial situation. 

"At least in this case everybody that impacts law enforcement – all of our visitors, our people that live in the UGA – all of those people are paying part of the nickel here,” Fancher said. “Anybody that shops in this community, goes to dinner, they’re all paying a piece of this, as opposed to the route we didn’t want to go with property tax that only (affected) a few people.”