Olympia council member says no time to waste in funding fight against climate change
The city of Olympia has made it clear that climate change is at the center of its worries. Earlier this month, council members discussed having legislative backing in their fight against climate change as a top priority for this next year.
But after attending a climate-centered youth panel recently, council member Lisa Parshley’s sense of urgency over the climate crisis was heightened. And on Sept. 20, she proposed that the council ask for a dedicated revenue stream to address climate change in the long term.
Parshley said the city needs a much more long-range plan, and asked that the city’s climate program manager outline what staffing and funding would be needed for pilot studies, available grants, community work possibilities and more. She said there’s a lot of work being done to research and address climate change, but there isn’t a dedicated, stable source of funding for it.
“Currently there is not enough budgetary capacity to fully fund our declared climate emergency as a great deal of the disposable general fund, year-end, one-time monies, and capital budget has been dedicated to our declared homelessness emergency, working on our housing crisis, work on reimagining public safety, and the necessary work on diversity and equity work,” Parshley read from her referral.
The council referred Parshley’s proposal to the city’s Finance Committee and city staff, who have been tasked with drafting a report by the end of the second quarter of 2023. Their work will include a plan for climate action funding for the coming 5 years. The ultimate goal would be to have a recommended course of action by the first quarter of 2024.
“We really don’t have a lot of time to wait for this,” Parshley said. “I really don’t want this to take more than one year.”
From here, staff will evaluate state law for the possibility of an excise, property, or sales tax devoted to climate actions. If one doesn’t exist, they plan to develop and write legislation for it, in hopes it would be sponsored by the 22nd Legislative District representatives in 2024.
Council member Jim Cooper said the city needs to front load its climate change efforts into the 2023 legislative session to show they mean business. He asked Parshley if there are any other cities pushing for legislative support in this way that they could partner with, but she said she’s unaware of any others currently pursuing it.
Parshley told The Olympian that Bellingham had started something similar but dropped it. Bellingham was considering a tax to address climate change, but the mayor paused the proposal.
