King County Council: District 8

Question 1

Taxes & Affordability: Tax burdens have increased and shifted as new levies have been adopted and commercial property values have declined. How would you limit the growing burden on residents and businesses while maintaining a sustainable County budget?
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Nick Duda

Too many local leaders have failed to recognize that continually raising taxes both worsens affordability for residents and businesses and makes our region an outlier.

At the same time, remote work, changes in the technology sector, and local fiscal and public-safety policies have left downtown with more than a third of its office space empty. Getting businesses back downtown, improving safety and stability, and making sure our tax structure does not push employers across the lake or out of state are essential to a sustainable budget. My opponent’s Jumpstart legislation has contributed to just this, and it’s a lesson we should learn from as we still deal with the fallout of it.

Government spending has also grown far faster than inflation and population over the last decade, with too many programs failing to deliver results commensurate with their cost. That is why so many residents feel their taxes have gone up while service quality has gone down.

Every major program should have clear, public goals and measurable outcomes. If it is not meeting its goals, fix it or reduce it. If it is producing strong results, scale it.

My career has focused on helping organizations make exactly these kinds of decisions across complex stakeholders: measure performance, prioritize investment, and deliver better results for less. Sensible fiscal management, safer streets, and a clear signal that King County wants businesses to grow here are how we rebuild trust and stabilize our tax base.

Teresa Mosqueda

Sustainable county budgets require progressive revenue, not just levy stacking on top of regressive sales and property taxes that burden residents and small businesses disproportionately. I have consistently fought for state authorization for progressive revenue tools including a countywide progressive payroll tax, progressive REET on high-value property sales, and a CEO pay-ratio tax — tools that shift the burden toward those with the greatest ability to pay.

The best example of this approach is JumpStart Progressive Payroll Tax. JumpStart is now the single largest contributor to permanent supportive housing — the exact thing businesses say they want to see downtown. It provides flexible funding for workforce and housing options that allow people to get off the streets and into care, and it applies only to companies with over $9 million in payroll on salaries above $194,452 — protecting small businesses entirely while generating over $400 million annually for housing, essential services, and economic resilience.

I will pursue the same model at the county level, oppose austerity cuts that destabilize public services, and advocate for a tax structure that is fairer, more sustainable, and less reliant on levies that fall hardest on working families and small businesses.

Question 3

Behavioral Health & Homelessness: How should King County improve its response to behavioral health and homelessness, including delivering on Crisis Care Centers and Health Through Housing, and through its relationship with KCRHA, while serving more people at lower cost?
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Nick Duda

King County needs a behavioral health and homelessness strategy built explicitly around outcomes. Housing matters, but the goals should also include recovery, employment, and greater independence.

For people with serious addiction or behavioral health crises, compassion and accountability must work together. Diversion and treatment should come first, but there also needs to be a backstop when someone repeatedly overdoses, refuses help, or cycles through the ER, jail, and the street.

I would expand the role of Crisis Care Centers to include a model like San Francisco’s RESET Center: immediate stabilization, assessment, and connection to treatment. A joint public-safety and public-health approach could better connect overdose patients and people entering the justice system with treatment while reducing repeated cycling through emergency systems.

Contracts moving away from KCRHA should be competitively rebid with clear performance standards tied to funding. We have spent too much while outcomes have worsened to not require clear deliverables for taxpayers. I have personally led large scale negotiations and RFPs, focused on delivering the best results through shared goals and transparent measurement.

Health Through Housing is part of the answer, but housing alone is not recovery. Better-defined goals around housing, treatment, employment, and independence can produce better outcomes and lower long-term costs, and importantly, a more compassionate and sustainable outcome.

Teresa Mosqueda

Addressing homelessness and behavioral health requires housing-first, evidence-based approaches with rigorous accountability and fiscal oversight. I have championed both.

On Seattle City Council I invested in Health One teams pairing social workers and paramedics as first responders, funded community violence interrupters and outreach workers, and redirected resources toward upstream prevention and supportive housing rather than reactive enforcement. At King County I have prioritized stable, multi-year funding for behavioral health workers, pushed for wage parity and career ladders for human service providers, and championed Health Through Housing investments that pair permanent housing with wraparound services.

On KCRHA: the recent audit findings were deeply concerning and I take fiscal accountability seriously. I support clear outcome benchmarks tied to housing placements, stable executive leadership with strong operational experience, and regular transparent reporting to both the Council and the public. I supported Councilmember Barón’s deliberate approach — understanding the full corrective action plan and hearing from service providers before making structural decisions, because continuity of care for people experiencing homelessness must be protected throughout any transition. Crisis Care Centers must be fully funded and delivered on schedule, and I will use my oversight authority to hold the county accountable to that commitment.

Question 5

Civic Campus: What is your vision for King County’s Downtown civic campus, and how would you finance its redevelopment while minimizing costs to taxpayers?
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Nick Duda

King County’s Civic Campus should become an asset to downtown, not an island within it.

The first step is determining how much office space the County actually needs. With changing work patterns, the County should consolidate where appropriate and use the value of underused public land to help finance redevelopment. That could include long-term ground leases, selective property sales, and public-private partnerships rather than relying primarily on new taxes or large amounts of new debt.

Redevelopment should also help create a true 24-hour neighborhood: significantly more housing, active ground-floor uses, community-serving businesses, better connections to Pioneer Square and the CID, and public spaces that are safe, clean, well-lit, and actively managed, similar to the approach for the waterfront redevelopment.

The goal should not be to rebuild a government office district. It should be to create a mixed-use neighborhood that brings more residents, workers, customers, and activity downtown while still serving the County’s core civic functions. I would also explore repurposing an underused block into a community gathering space modeled on places like Bryant Park in NYC.

Done well, the Civic Campus can add housing, improve downtown vitality, modernize County facilities, and minimize taxpayer burden by using the value of assets we already own.

Teresa Mosqueda

King County’s downtown civic campus represents a generational opportunity to create a more efficient, accessible, and economically productive public presence in the heart of Seattle. My vision is a consolidated, modernized campus that reduces the county’s long-term real estate costs, creates more accessible public services for residents, and activates downtown with a civic anchor that draws people in.

Financing must minimize costs to taxpayers while leveraging the county’s assets creatively. I support exploring public-private partnership models that allow the county to monetize underutilized downtown property while retaining ownership of core civic functions. The county’s bonding authority and credit capacity should be used strategically to finance redevelopment in ways that generate long-term savings over current dispersed leasing and maintenance costs. Any redevelopment must also incorporate affordable housing, ground-floor community-serving retail, and strong labor standards, ensuring the civic campus contributes to downtown vitality rather than simply consolidating county operations. I will push for transparent cost-benefit analysis and community engagement throughout the planning process so taxpayers understand what they are getting and why it is worth the investment.