Dunn votes no on VSHS levy implementation plan, cites funding stripped from local food banks

December 5, 2023

Today, as the King County Council voted to approve the implementation plan for the Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services Levy (VSHSL) funds, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn voted no on the plan, criticizing the plan’s distribution of millions of dollars in funds to non-profit worker wages at the expense of funding food banks.

“When voters approved the VSHSL levy, I believe they envisioned supporting services to our vulnerable residents—veterans, seniors, and others—before redistributing dozens of millions of taxpayer dollars to nonprofit worker salaries,” Dunn said. “During these hard economic times, as our food banks are seeing skyrocketing demand and running out of food, it’s wrong to fund salary boosts for our contractors instead of funding food for hungry people in our communities, and I cannot support it.”

The VSHSL allocates nearly $58,000,000 for nonprofit organizations to increase wages, improve benefits, reduce the cost of living and provide professional development for their employees. This is the largest pot of funding in the implementation plan, amounting to approximately 10% of the total estimated VSHSL levy revenue.

Though the King Council amended the authorizing legislation for VSHSL levy proposal to request funding for local food banks, there was no such strategy included in the implementation plan. When the Council’s Regional Policy Committee voted to re-allocate $6,000,000 of the $58,000,000 from the non-profit wages bucket to food security, the Council’s Committee of the Whole controversially then acted to reverse this action, stripping all dedicated funding for food banks from the VSHSL implementation plan. 

As COVID-related assistance ends and food costs rise due to inflation, more people are seeking food assistance and fewer are donating food. The Department of Agriculture recently reported that 12.8% of American households reported being food insecure in 2022—up from 10.2% in 2021 and 10.5% in 2020. A recent King County report on food insecurity  initiated by Dunn found that food banks in South and Southeast King County receive less food per person in need. These food banks can only offer two-thirds the amount of food per person with an income below 200% of the federal poverty threshold compared to food banks that serve Seattle. 

On August 1, 2023, King County voters authorized the renewal of the VSHSL, effective January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2029 by approving Proposition No. 1, with a first-year levy rate of $0.10 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. Total revenue of the levy is estimated at $581 million over six years (2024 – 2029).