Mayor says Kent seeking state action to replace sales‑tax revenue lost after 2008 sourcing change

Mayor Dana Ralph told the Kent City Council on Feb. 4 that she and city staff spent a day in Olympia meeting with the city’s legislative delegation to seek a replacement for revenue the city says it lost after a 2008 change in how sales tax is sourced.

Ralph said the 2008 change moved sales tax receipts to the destination city rather than the origin warehouse city, and she told the council that Kent disproportionately lost revenue as a result. “We’re losing somewhere between $1,820,000,000 dollars a year that should be going back into our city,” she said in the meeting record. The mayor said city officials are working with legislators on bills in the current session intended to replace that revenue and that the delegation indicated support for finding solutions.

The mayor framed the issue as a long‑running concern: she said Kent once received sales tax generated by the industrial valley’s large warehousing footprint but that the state’s sourcing change shifted that tax to destination jurisdictions. She asked council members to follow the legislative process and said staff will update the council as the session advances.

Ralph described the Olympia meetings as productive but did not provide bill numbers or a specific replacement mechanism during the Feb. 4 remarks. She also connected the budget conversations to ongoing priorities the council has supported, such as funding for local social‑service partners.

The council did not take a formal vote on the matter during the Feb. 4 meeting; the comments were provided as part of the mayor’s regular report to the council. The mayor asked staff to continue tracking legislative progress and to report back to the council.

Note: the dollar figure above is drawn from the mayor’s remarks as recorded in the meeting transcript.