BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – An initiative to eliminate a property tax to fund child care is currently being considered by several parties.

On Thursday, August 15, the Whatcom County Council voted 5-1 to hire Pacifica Law Group to conduct its own legal review of the initiative at a cost of up to $60,000.

Council member Mark Stremler voted against hiring the group, saying he believed the council was engaging in political matters by conducting the review.

“I think it seems like the county council is trying to support this campaign, looking at what’s in this agenda item and what’s on the (Protect Whatcom Kids) website,” Stremler said. The council has been divided for several months over how to handle the initiative – and has been debating whether to interfere in its path to the ballot on behalf of the county charter.

Proposition 5, which created the Healthy Children’s Fund, passed in 2022 by just 20 votes and increased property taxes by 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

Meanwhile, a newly formed Political Action Committee (PAC) filed a temporary restraining order on Wednesday, August 21, asking that Initiative 1 be removed from the ballot. The PAC, which calls itself Protect Whatcom Kids, is comprised of a number of local decision-makers from the social services and political communities.

According to court documents, the initiative’s backers, Washingtonians for a Sound Economy, failed to adequately describe the initiative in several places. Washingtonians for a Sound Economy — led by Tim Koetje, CEO and founder of Axiom Construction — focuses on tax cuts, according to its website, and stated that the property tax that funds the Healthy Children’s Fund raised taxes by 25%. Protect Whatcom Kids refutes that claim, saying that raising the tax cap only raised taxes by 2 or 3%.

Protect Whatcom Kids argues in the documents that this initiative is actually a referendum and as such should be invalidated. According to county charter, initiatives require fewer signatures than referendums and are designed to change a law, not repeal it.

Whatcom County Auditor Stacy Henthorn says the office must send ballots to the printer by Sept. 6 and make the voter handbook available online by Sept. 20. Whether Initiative 1 addresses either issue must be decided before Sept. 6—just over two weeks from now.