BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – An initiative that seeks to repeal a property tax funding childcare is now under scrutiny from multiple parties.

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

Council member Mark Stremler voted against hiring the group, saying that he thinks the council is participating in politics with conducting the review.

“I am thinking that it would appear that the county council is attempting to do the bidding for this campaign based on what it says in this agenda item and what it says on [Protect Whatcom Kids’] website,” Stremler said. The council has been divided on how to handle the initiative for the last couple of months – debating if they should interfere in its path to the ballot in the name of the county’s charter.

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

Meanwhile, a newly formed Political Action Committee (PAC) filed an injunction Wednesday, Aug. 21, asking for Initiative 1 to be removed from the ballot. The PAC, called Protect Whatcom Kids, comprises a series of local movers-and-shakers in the social service and political worlds.

Court documents state the initiative’s backers, Washingtonians for a Sound Economy, did not adequately describe the initiative at multiple points. Washingtonians for a Sound Economy – headed up by Tim Koetje, CEO and founder of Axiom Construction – focuses on lowering taxes according to their website and said that the property tax funding the Healthy Children’s Fund increased taxes by 25%. Protect Whatcom Kids refutes this claim, saying that the levy lid lift increased taxes only by 2 or 3%.

Protect Whatcom Kids in the documents argue that this initiative is actually a referendum and should be deemed invalid as a referendum. According to the county charter, initiatives require less signatures than referendums and are used to change a law, not repeal it.

Whatcom County Auditor Stacy Henthorn says the office has to send the ballots to the printers by Sept. 6 and make the voter’s guide available online on Sept. 20. Whether Initiative 1 is on either item will need to be determined before Sept. 6 – just over two weeks away.