CITY OF TACOMA - Initiative No. 1 · Pierce County

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Statement For · Tyron Moore, Kiss’Shonna Curtis, Bill Hanawalt

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Committee: Tyron Moore, Kiss’Shonna Curtis, Bill Hanawalt

Hold Outside Corporate Slumlords Accountable: In Tacoma, we stand up for our neighbors. We cannot allow outside real estate investors to threaten housing affordability with illegal rent hikes or force families to live with hazardous black mold. Measure 1 establishes basic enforcement and protects renters from retaliation when they organize and speak out. Protect Working Families & Small Landlords: Most Tacoma tenants rent from out-of-town landlords prioritizing profit over safety and affordability. Measure 1 protects affordable housing, while offering resources to small landlords. Responsible property owners won’t be impacted. Repeat Offenders and Corporate Landlords Pay: Enforcement should be funded by repeat violators and corporate landlords exploiting our neighbors–not taxpayers. Measure 1 does exactly that, while largely exempting nonprofits. Reject Dark Money Corruption of Elections: Outside real estate interests spent nearly $400,000 trying to buy Tacoma’s 2023 election and block tenant protections, flooding mailboxes with deceptive claims while illegally hiding spending. Tacomans saw through their lies before, and we will again. Vote YES on Measure 1!

Rebuttal of argument against

Landlord groups spread fear with wild claims. The News Tribune reported “the City has not published any studies” and won’t dedicate “staff time to... analysis of initiative” costs. Don’t be fooled: similar Washington programs run on small $10 to $35 per-unit landlord fees–too small to raise rents or push out responsible landlords. Measure 1 allows quick fee collection, protecting taxpayers and city services. Renter rights mean nothing without enforcement against slumlords. Vote yes!

Statement Against · Michael Mirra, Ben Lackey, Mark Melsness

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Committee: Michael Mirra, Ben Lackey, Mark Melsness

Tacoma needs more affordable housing This proposal makes housing, including affordable housing, harder to develop and more expensive. Rents will go up. More Bureaucracy, higher costs, services cuts It directs the City to create a new bureaucracy to license rental units and investigate and adjudicate tenant complaints. The City’s estimated annual cost to do this is $8 to $10 million. It directs the City to recoup this expense with per unit licensing fees. Yet, it delays recoupment for 18 months to 3 years. Meanwhile, this will worsen the City’s $40M budget shortfall, deepening cuts to fire fighters, public safety, and housing. Fees will increase rents It imposes licensing fees that will lead to higher rents. Recouping $8 to $10M will require an average annual per unit licensing fee of $191. This will lead to higher rents. Strong renter protections already exist Tacoma already has some of the strongest renter protections in the country. Vote no.

Rebuttal of argument for

Tacoma already requires landlords who violate landlord duties to get a license, called a “provisional license”, with fees up to $2,000. Balancing competing needs is the City’s annual budget challenge. The proposal dodges that deliberative process. It requires spending $8-10M on another licensing program, all amid a $40M budget crisis. This redirects funds from other public services, including affordable housing, while not adding a square inch of housing in Tacoma.