By Alia Sinclair

The SeaTac City Council unanimously passed an ordinance imposing a local sales and use tax of 0.01% for Human Services Programs at Tuesday night’s (Oct. 13, 2026) council meeting.

This tax is authorized by the Washington State Legislature in Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2442 and allows cities to impose a tax to fund additional services that assist children and their families, including but not limited to:

  1. Childcare services
  2. Perinatal support services
  3. Before-school and after-school-based youth services 
  4. Workforce capacity building
  5. Shelter and rental assistance
  6. Client transportation.

For SeaTac, the local sales and use tax will create a stable, dedicated fund used exclusively for advancing the City’s goals of promoting community health, family stability, and equitable access to essential services.

The new tax burden on SeaTac residents comes to 1 cent per $100 purchase, with the forecast total revenue from the local sales and use tax estimated at $250,000 per annum. 

With approximately 52 million travelers passing through SeaTac annually, the hope of the council is that a portion of the annual revenue from the new tax will come from travelers paying for goods while in the city.

Councilmember James Lovell stated this hope in his comments:

“As a general rule, a sales tax is a fairly regressive thing. But for a city where a lot of the sales and use tax is generated by travelers passing through, who are contributing to some of the disparities that we see in human services, this is one of those ways where [the sales tax] can actually help us recoup a little bit of the cost of doing this kind of business within the city limits.”

The new sales tax will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.