A small tax hike could bring big road fixes

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026

No one likes higher taxes. But here’s one proposed tax increase that could give back more to Vashon than it takes.

King County officials are considering a sales tax bump of 0.1 percentage point to provide more funding to maintain, repair, repave and rebuild roads.

The King County Transportation District — a special-purpose government whose board members are the nine King County Council members — has been debating the measure since February. Approval could come in the next few weeks.

The increase would take effect Jan. 1. It would raise the sales tax rate on Vashon from 8.9 to 9.0 percent.

But the island also could benefit disproportionately from the revenue the new tax would generate. Here’s how:

The tax would be collected countywide. About 95 percent of the money would come from Seattle, Bellevue and the other 37 incorporated cities in King County; that’s where most of the county’s people, stores and taxable sales are.

But those cities would get no more than 12.5 percent of the tax proceeds. Under a compromise unveiled May 15 that appeared to have majority support, at least 87.5 percent of the money would be spent to fix and improve roads in unincorporated areas.

Places like Vashon.

The sales-tax increase would generate about $102 million next year, an estimated $1.17 billion over 10 years. Council members in April rejected amendments to give 20 percent of that to cities, or direct 50 percent to Metro Transit.

Most council members resisted, suggesting that unincorporated-area roads need the money more urgently: They’re deteriorating, and woefully underfunded.

Even a representative of suburban cities has endorsed the compromise. “The unincorporated roads are an important part of our system … ” Robert Feldstein of the Sound Cities Association said May 15. “They face poor conditions and serious budget challenges.”

The unincorporated road system “is critical infrastructure that has been deprioritized and divested from for decades,” Council Member Teresa Mosqueda, whose district includes Vashon, said in an interview. “What we see on places like Vashon Island is residents calling us on a nearly daily basis, talking about unmet needs.”

“Our roads are in a state of disrepair,” Elijah Berry, president of the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce, told the Transportation District board May 15.

Tricia Davis, director of the Road Services Division, laid out the extent of the county’s roads problems in a presentation to the board in February. She pointed to a troublesome stretch of road on Vashon to help illustrate one of many challenges Roads faces: Climate change and sea level rise.

Southwest Quartermaster Drive just west of Portage floods, and sometimes must be closed, during king tides. It’s on the isthmus linking Vashon with Maury Island, what Davis called “a very vulnerable connecting point.”

Flooding is happening more frequently, she said, and Maury “could become literally an island, unable to access any services.” But Roads lacks money to even study a long-term fix, Davis added.

Roads is responsible for 1,500 miles of road in unincorporated King County, including 132 on Vashon. Eighty percent of its revenue comes from a property tax that’s paid only by property owners in unincorporated areas. The roads levy accounts for about 12 percent of Vashon property-tax bills this year.

Roads’ funding problems can be traced back to the 1990s. The state’s Growth Management Act encouraged urbanized unincorporated areas to either join existing cities, or form new ones — Shoreline, Federal Way, Sammamish. While King County’s population soared, the unincorporated area’s population plummeted, from more than 500,000 in 1990 to about 250,000 today.

So fewer taxpayers now pay the roads levy. While the tax base has shrunk, the sprawling unincorporated road network has aged, requiring more maintenance and repairs than Roads says it can afford. And new development in fast-growing cities is jamming some undersized unincorporated roads that connect them.

On top of all that, voters in 2001 approved an initiative that limits property-tax levy increases to 1 percent a year — not enough to keep up with inflation and rising construction costs, county officials say.

The result: In 2004, 79 percent of unincorporated arterials and 77 percent of the smaller roads were in good or excellent condition, Davis told the Transportation District board in February.

Now? Just 58 and 46 percent, respectively.

In 2024 the county produced a report identifying 468 Roads capital projects in unincorporated areas, including 22 on Vashon, that it said should be completed over the next 20 years.

Among the Vashon projects: Rebuilding the seawall and raising the roadbed along that flood- prone stretch of Quartermaster Drive. Improved pedestrian and/or bike lanes in Vashon town. Reconstructing the Westside Highway between McIntyre Road and Crescent Drive. Replacing the seawalls, and adding guardrails, on Dockton Road between Ellisport and Portage, and on Vashon Highway south of Burton.

The pricetag for all 468 projects: More than $2.4 billion — $112 million of that for the Vashon projects. Estimated available funds: About $289 million.

The sales-tax increase now before the Transportation District board would nearly double county funding for unincorporated roads. But even that sum wouldn’t pay for everything.

It’s too soon to say which projects would be built, or when, if the tax increase is approved. The 2024 report didn’t prioritize the 468 capital projects. The legislation the board is considering requires Roads to complete an implementation plan by fall.

Division spokesperson Brent Champaco said in an email that projects would be prioritized based on several factors, including “safety, system preservation, climate resilience, equity and access for people and goods.”

While Council Member Mosqueda represents Vashon, most of her constituents live in cities — Seattle, Burien, Tukwila. It’s reasonable to ask them to pick up part of the tab to improve unincorporated roads, she maintains.

“For the people in cities: You, too, use these roads,” Mosqueda said. “We have tons of people in Seattle who go to Vashon on a regular basis who will also benefit from major investments on Vashon.”

Commuters from incorporated Burien who ride Metro’s H Line Rapid Ride bus to work in downtown Seattle will experience a smoother ride through unincorporated White Center if 15th Avenue Southwest — considered one of the worst roads in the state — is repaved, she said.

The sales tax isn’t an ideal revenue source, Mosqueda said. She wishes the county had the authority to impose a payroll tax on high earners, or a “mansion tax” on sales of luxury homes, instead.

But it’s one of the few tools available, she said, and just about every county road on Vashon needs work: “We cannot afford to wait to make these investments.”

Eric Pryne is a retired Seattle Times journalist whose many beats included transportation.