Latest news with #SpokaneCounty
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ballots for August primary will be mailed Wednesday
Jul. 16—Registered voters in Spokane County should expect to receive their ballots as early as Thursday for the August primary, and are encouraged to return them as soon as possible. The Spokane County Auditor's Office will begin to mail ballots Wednesday for the Aug. 5 election. This year's ballot includes races for school boards, fire commissions and city councils alongside several local measures. "As soon as the ballots start going out, our drop boxes are open," Spokane County Auditor Vicki Dalton said Tuesday. "So all you need to do is look for the most convenient drop box and put it in there, or you can just put it right back in the mail, no postage required." Dalton said that voters should expect to receive a printed voter's guide, which is mailed to every household in the county. The guide includes information regarding what's on the ballot, candidate-submitted information and statements, and statements of support and opposition for any issues on the ballot. The voter's guide is also available online at Dalton said voters who don't receive their ballot in the mail by the middle of next week can contact the auditor's office to double-check that their registration is up to date with their current address. "Because sometimes that is the problem. It may be that you're registered for a different jurisdiction, or that you're not even registered for Spokane County. Maybe you moved from King County and never changed your voter registration," Dalton said. The deadline to register to vote or to update your registration online or through the mail is July 28. "After that point, you need to actually physically come into the office," Dalton said. Voters can update their voter registration in person through 8 p.m. on election day. The deadline to submit a ballot at a drop box is 8 p.m. on election day. Ballots submitted by mail must be dropped in the box early enough to be postmarked Aug. 5. "We do hope that people study the information, make a decision, get their ballots marked, and get them sent in early," Dalton said. "Please don't wait until election day or close to election day to send them back." Dalton said that waiting to return a ballot can mean delayed results as ballots submitted on election day slowly trickle in in the following days. Voters can check their ballot status online at "I know that everybody wants the results quickly, but if everybody waits until right at the end, it's going to take us time to get those results done," Dalton said. Initial results in the election will be released at around 8:15 p.m. on election day. The election will be certified on Aug. 19. Typically, turnout for both primaries and off-year elections trails the turnout for elections with a presidential race at the top of the ticket. While more than 77% of registered voters submitted their ballots in the November 2024 election, only 24.9% did so in the August primary in 2021. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Annual survey shows decrease in Spokane County homelessness from last year
Jul. 14—The number of homeless people in Spokane County fell by 10.6% last year. The findings are based on the 2025 point-in-time count conducted in January when teams fan out to count and question Spokane County's homeless population on a particular night. This year's count found 1,806 people living on the streets or in shelters. It was the second consecutive year that showed a decline While homelessness in Spokane dropped overall, the number of people living without shelter during January rose to 617 from 443 a year earlier, while the number of homeless people staying in shelters fell from 1,578 to 1,189. The annual point-in-time count, which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires of counties receiving federal funding, had shown a steady increase in Spokane County homeless for much of the past decade until the past two years. As a snapshot during a single night of the year, the count cannot be extrapolated to what homelessness looks like year round and some experts question its reliability. Still, Mayor Lisa Brown touted the latest numbers as evidence her administration's approach to homelessness is working. "The big picture is the trend is in the right direction," she said Monday. During her tenure, Brown has shifted the city's focus on centralized emergency shelters to scattered sites across the city. Those moves, she said, are a cause of the overall decrease, and, the increase of unsheltered people. During the 2024 January count the Trent Resource and Assistance Center was still open. Its closure in November is one cause for the increase in unsheltered individuals surveyed. "I'm sure there were more shelter beds in 2024 than there were this year but there was not an equal rise in unsheltered populations, which I think means we're doing good work," argued Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services division director Dawn Kinder. Of those surveyed during the 2025 count, 43% of adults reported they had severe mental illness and 52% of adults reported drug addiction. During a Monday presentation to the Spokane City Council, councilman Jonathan Bingle argued the city does not address these issues to the same degree they do housing. "We are regularly told this is a housing problem. And I don't disagree that there's a serious housing component to this. But when I see this data that means at a bare minimum we have 700 folks struggling with something pretty serious," he said. "I would like to see a little bit more balance in our conversations. Not just housing-focused because there is a lot more to this." Kinder defended the administration's housing-first policies as the only way for homeless individuals to receive effective treatment. "We are struggling with mental health and addiction and a myriad of challenges. But expecting somebody to get clean and sober while unhoused or have reliable treatment for mental health unhoused is a bit of a stretch," she said. "So is it more than housing? Yes. But can we get somebody completely healthy and stable without housing? No." The count also found 70% of respondents last became homeless while living in Spokane County. An additional 14% became homeless from somewhere within Washington State. Brown said the results are evidence against beliefs that many of Spokane's unhoused come from elsewhere in the country. "I don't buy the narrative that Spokane is somehow a magnet for the unhoused. I think a city in the urban center of a very rural region that has health care services, education services and potential employment is going to be a place where a lot of people end up," she said. Asked what she would say to Spokane residents who might not believe homelessness is decreasing, the mayor said: "People are still going to see homeless people" on the street even if the population in shelters is decreasing. "Nothing about the (count) suggests we've solved the crisis," added Kinder. "But we are making really strategic investments to try and address those who are unsheltered."
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Land, mobile homes, city center condos see largest increases in value in Spokane County this year
Jun. 6—Vacant land and mobile homes are hot commodities, according to the latest data from the Spokane County Assessor's Office. Property owners across the county began receiving their property assessments for 2026 taxes this week that serve as the county's estimates as of Jan. 1. They tend to be lower than what a property would fetch on the market, and year-over-year increases and decreases usually vary neighborhood to neighborhood. Spokane County Assessor Tom Konis said that of the nearly 215,000 properties appraised by his office this year, rural lands, manufactured homes and condos at the city's core saw the largest increases in value for residential properties. The value of the average Spokane County home climbed from $428,617 to $435,028 this year, a 1.5% increase following the county's first decrease last year after a decade on the rise. Spokane County home values have more than doubled in the last seven years, growing from an average of $209,659 in 2018 to around $430,000 for the past three years. "The residential real estate market appears to have calmed down in most areas," Konis said in a written statement. "Additionally, land is in high demand and prices continue to rise." Southern Spokane County properties near Spangle, Fairfield, Rockford and south of Cheney saw the biggest increase, with residential properties to the east of U.S. Highway 195 growing in value at an average of 5.9%, and properties to the west of the thoroughfare slightly behind at a rate of 4.5%. The growing allure of rural lands is consistent across the county, Spokane County Deputy Assessor Joe Hollenback said. Vacant land, whether zoned for commercial or residential use, saw an average increase countywide of around 10%, according to Assessor's Office data. Manufactured homes on leased land grew in value by a whopping 13%, which Konis said he believes is because of their affordability. Demand is growing as other entry-level housing becomes more unaffordable. Recent legislation limiting rent increases of the land and mobile home parks the structures sit on could further fuel their popularity. Rounding out the increases this year are the residential units in downtown Spokane and Kendall Yards, which saw an average increase of nearly 9%. That's despite commercial office buildings seeing a decline of 6% and losing tens of millions in assessed value over the past five years, as previously reported by The Spokesman-Review. Konis said homeowners can use the assessments they have, or are soon to receive, to get an idea of what their 2026 tax bill will be by using the estimator tool available on the county's website. Launched in 2022, the tax estimator tool provides a ballpark of what homeowners can expect; it is not a comprehensive prediction. That's largely because the assessor's office can't calculate tax bills until late December. County staff can only set levy rates once they know every local government budget and every voter-approved levy and bond issue. The largest chunk of a homeowner's taxes — often more than 50% — goes to schools. About 15% of Spokane County property taxes go to cities and towns. Fire districts get about 12% of the pie, and the county government receives 8%. Smaller pieces go toward road funds, libraries, cemeteries and parks.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Candidate filing week is nearly finished, and many races in Spokane County aren't contested
May 8—Elections are a time for choices, and for many, the only time they learn the names of their local elected leaders, if for no other reason than that boon for local print shops and the bane of everyone else: roadside signs. But for many races — so far — there won't be much of an election, because only one person signed up for the seat. Perhaps voters are fully satisfied with their incumbents, or perhaps only one person had the gumption to run, or else competitors are waiting for the last possible minute to file. Whatever the reason, there are dozens of races with no competition and only a day left in filing week. If no one else files for these seats before 5 p.m. Friday, nothing save a write-in candidate fighting a steep uphill battle will stop the only person who did file from being able to celebrate election victory months before there is one. There's often not much competition for seats on those less-known boards for cemetery and water districts, and this year is no different. As of Thursday evening, there is no more than one candidate for all of these races, including the Milan, Moran and West Greenwood cemetery districts, and the Four Lakes, Irvin and Spokane County water districts. And while school board races have become increasingly contested in recent years, many districts in Spokane County also don't have a single competitive race. There is only one candidate for each of the races this year in the school districts of East Valley, Deer Park, Great Northern, Freeman, Medical Lake, Newport, Nine Mile Falls, Orchard Prairie, Reardan-Edwall, Tekoa, West Valley and, perhaps surprisingly, the Spokane School District. City Council and mayoral races are often competitive, especially in larger jurisdictions — of the four races for Spokane Valley City Council and three for Spokane City Council this year, every one has at least two candidates. But that's not the case for many of the county's other municipalities. It seems there's job security this year for elected officials in Fairfield, Latah, Rockford, Spangle and Waverly, which all have seats up for election but do not have a single competitive race. Other cities come close to a full slate of uncontested races, with only a single exception. There are three council races up this year in Liberty Lake, but only position No. 6 is thus far contested, between Judie Schumacher and Arlene Fisher. Deer Park's City Council has four seats up for election this year, as is the city's mayoral seat, but again, only council position No. 6 has attracted two candidates, Tony Bailey and Robert Whaley. Medical Lake has four council positions that are uncontested, though former Medical Lake Mayor John Higgins has thrown his hat in the race against incumbent Mayor Terri Cooper. Countywide races, having the most potential voters and also the most potential candidates, are also often quite competitive. Longtime deputy county treasurer Mike Volz was appointed to the county treasurer position in February, filling a seat vacated by now-U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner. As such, he has to run for election this year to fill the rest of Baumgartner's term, which runs through 2026. Whether because of the complicated duties of the gig, out of respect for the experienced incumbent who was the top unelected official in the office for several years, or simply because someone is waiting to the last minute to file, no one has filed to run against Volz as of Thursday.
