Kastama & King Admit Raising Taxes To Maximum Allowed By Law – Call Facts “Mud”

Puyallup City Council, lead by current mayor Jim Kastama and deputy mayor Dennis King, think bringing to light their tax increases is “throwing mud.”

As ballots were being sent out last week, the incumbent candidates running for reelection to Puyallup City Council focused their social media attention on preparing followers to expect “mudslinging.” Jim Kastama, taking a 2 year turn as council’s mayor, called out Puyallup Voters for Integrity and referred to me as a “political operative.” That’s a bold claim from the most powerful politician in Puyallup who made his career out of politics for the past several decades.

I responded to Kastama’s attack with a detailed comment, pointing out that I’m simply a Puyallup resident, business owner, and voter interested in keeping city council accountable. He used the “hide” button so only my Facebook friends can see what I wrote in response. That’s ironic since Kastama says right in the post that he will “continue to provide open, fact-based communication so residents can see exactly where every dollar goes. Our city deserves honest leadership—not anonymous attacks or half-truths designed to divide us.” Kastama also hid other comments that he didn’t like from mutual friends. It’s clear from these actions, and his backroom deals to raise taxes without asking the public, that open communication is not how he operates.

Then sometime last night, Kastama edited his post to remove my name and his admission that he raised taxes to the maximum allowed by law. The current version of his post added the dog-whistle phrase “Seattle-style Politics” in an attempt to suggest it’s “un-Puyallup” to bring facts to light about what’s really going on in city hall. And in no way is the information PV4I sharing anonymous, and if there are any half-truths, then let it be known what those are: it has always said at the bottom of every PV4I page: “When facts are presented, we want them to be accurate. If you find any errors, please email us with original-source evidence for correction..

What Kastama is doing is responding with an ad hominem argument. When people can’t argue an issue with facts, a common diversion is to attack the messenger. It’s an effective debate tactic, and often sends people off with a feeling that the attacker won the debate, when they did nothing but ignore the topic. That’s the effect Jim Kastama has with some of his Facebook followers, with some commenters thanking him for “giving us accurate information” when he did the very opposite, confusing issues with his actual mudslinging

And now this morning we see a long Facebook post from Dennis King, up for re-election to council and currently serving a 2 year turn as Deputy Mayor. He includes a doctored, threatening-looking photo of me that he creepily had someone take of me from behind. That must be the kind of “Seattle-style politics” he’s constantly railing against. Readers will notice that here at PV4I, there are no incendiary posts like that.

I will hand it to King over Kastama, though. The latter has an image broadcasting the message “Here are the facts” but he has no facts in his post, or anything that contradicts the information put out by PV4I. At least King has, for the first time, put out information rather than aphorisms and promotional ads. In-depth exploration of issues is exactly what I think everyone in Puyallup has been craving for years from these candidates who seem to think running for city council is just some kind of high school popularity contest.

Since Kastama has no response to the simple facts presented by PV4I, let’s dig into what King wrote…

After reviewing King’s post, here are my initial thoughts in response…. – Chris Chisholm, PV4I Treasurer

1. The introduction is a long dog-whistle propaganda piece that, along with his darkened and doctored photo, is designed to bring fear into the hearts of Puyallup residents. While the PV4I website and posts are focused on the facts and avoid name-calling, the entire introduction of King’s post opens a disturbing door of propaganda and fear that’s actual mudslinging, and that’s so irresponsible in this threatening era of instability in the country and region.

2. King leads each PV4I fact with the title “Misleading Claim” when again, there are no “claims” in the PV4I material, just facts that he’s trying to spin. His and Kastama’s posts show how afraid they are of the fact coming to light that they, as leaders of city council, raised all possible taxes they could to the highest level possible without public vote. Again, at least they admit to all the tax increases, but they should let voters decide if they agree without adding spin and doxxing the messengers. Hopefully Puyallup voters will see through the shade they cast to what is the simple bottom line: they raised taxes all over the board for projects that could have been done so much more cost-effectively.

3. One of the blatant lies King includes is when he says, “And the claim about the Activity Center is simply false. The facility remains open and available at affordable rates, and community members are encouraged to use it!” Anyone who has tried to rent the Puyallup Activity Center over the past year knows rentals ended due to the staffing cuts they suffered. You can try it yourself on the city website and see what happens. Perhaps with this coming to light, they will figure out how to shift resources and resume rentals of what was nearly the only affordable event space left for residents to use in Puyallup.

4. His bottom line says, “If you ever want the underlying reports, cost comparisons, or rate studies, they are available — because in Puyallup, accountability isn’t a slogan. It’s our standard.” What’s interesting is that he switches to speaking in third-person slogan-like jargon here, and that’s what’s standard. I challenge anyone to try reaching out to King, Kastama or anyone at city hall and see if they can get you the original source documentation PV4I had to sort through to find all the tax increases and expenditures now referenced on our website. No one at city hall had it compiled, so we took the time to research and everything and put it together … so even Dennis King could have it all in front of him to explain.

There are more topics to cover in responding to King’s post, and I’ll get to those as time allows. In the meantime, here’s a reiteration of the facts with links to original sources embedded within city council’s own published agendas and meeting minutes:

To pay for the renovation and 30 year police station rental:

• Council raised city debt to the maximum limit allowed without public vote (on April 1, 2024)
• Increased property tax by 6% (on November 26, 2024)
• Increased electric and gas utilities tax rates by 1.8% (on August 26, 2024) so taxes are now 6.3% on our bills;
• Increased cable tax rate by 1.6% % (on August 26, 2024)
• Made staff cuts to the Puyallup Library, Senior Activity Center, Economic Development Manager, and other positions at City Hall (on November 26, 2024)
• Reallocated capital money from transportation to this project (on November 26, 2024)
• Replaced the transportation funds by increasing sales tax from 10.1% to 10.2% (on November 12 & 26, 2024)

The sales tax increase was accomplished by City Council creating a new Transportation Tax District. In its poll, PV4I is questioning why the Puyallup City Council made itself commissioners of the new tax district, rather than having the public elect Transportation Tax District commissioners. The property tax increase was accomplished by reversing 6 years of decisions made by prior councils which had declined to raise property taxes – state law limits cities to 1% increase in property taxes per year, but a loophole allows cities to override past decisions, while not being able to collect “lost” taxes back in time.

The large jump in City of Puyallup utility fees, included 5.5% increase in water rates, 7.5% increase in sewer rates, and a 16.5% increase in stormwater fees. As part of its campaign poll, PV4I is including questions about these municipal utility rate increases, as well as questioning expenditures from the utilities fund, specifically the use of $600,000 towards a
$5 million project rebuilding the 100 block of 9^th St SW into what is was branded as a “festival street” alongside the Puyallup Fairgrounds, just 4 years after the same block was completely rebuilt for $2 million using the City’s general street fund.

And finally as a reminder, After three failed attempts to get city residents to vote in favor of a bond for new police station and jail, the Puyallup City Council opted for a rental option, meaning the City wouldn’t own a building they’re investing millions into renovating. According to the City of Puyallup website, the project over 30 years is projected to total $73.5 million in cost to Puyallup taxpayers. In comparison, the cost of the 2023 proposition to build a police station and jail on land the City owns would have cost $75 million for police station WITH 56 bed jail. It was rejected by 52.51% voting “no” despite a full-court press by city council and staff using our tax money to promote it.

The breakdown of costs in 2023 was projected to be $35 million for the police station, plus $9 million in shared groundbreaking expense if they had added a jail for an additional $31 million. That means a police station alone would have cost at most $44 million. The City of Puyallup has not commented on why it did not pursue that straighforward option, despite voters rejecting the 2023 bond (by 52.51% voting no) not because they opposed a police station, but due to the high cost and inclusion of a new jail. All other cities in Pierce County have closed their city jails, finding it more cost effective to use the New Pierce County Jail which was built in 2003 in part to take over housing of misdemeanor inmates from outlying cities like Puyallup as their jails aged.

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Please consider a donation of any amount, and invite your friends to like our Facebook page. Sponsored by Puyallup Voters for Integrity, PO Box 42, Puyallup WA 98371. No candidate or party contributes to, authorizes or controls this Political Action Committee which is registered at the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. 2025 campaign season contributors over the $100 threshold so far include Chris Chisholm, PV4I Treasurer. When facts are presented, we want them to be accurate. If you find any errors, please email us with original-source evidence for correction.