Prop 1: Prioritizing all offices is doing nothing: Prop 1 pays lip-service to prioritize core services while cutting out the initially proposed "Human Services" and "Public Defense" offices and allowing the council to prioritize every single office if they choose. This initiative comes from a good place but is not ready to be enshrined in our charter, and as written it does nothing to prioritize core services. 

Prop 2: Creating an emergency fund without a fully baked plan: Prop 2 is well intentioned but isn't ready to be approved. This new fund is only to be used during a natural disaster, and there is no cap on the taxes flowing into this fund, regardless of how long our county goes without experiencing a natural disaster. This is another idea that sounds good, until thorough read surfaces that the work to build this fund is not complete and it's not ready to be put into law yet.

Prop 3: Hiding Party Affiliation from the voters: The only partisan county offices are County Executive, Council, and Prosecutor. Prop 3 removes the partisan label in the voter's pamphlet and on the ballot - stripping that transparency for the voters. Snohomish County has become a Democrat-dominant county, so the MAGA folks spent over $80k in Ads to ensure Republicans had enough votes on the Charter Review Commission to get THIS proposed change passed so they could hide from their losing Republican message. Frankly, Prop 3 is how the Republicans plan to get right-wing Nate Nehring elected as the next County Executive. Let's deny them that favor.

Prop 4: Solving a non-existent problem with your tax dollars: Prop 4 is "Transparency Theater" - full stop. This will cost taxpayers money we don't have to create a web portal we won't use to display information that is already public.

Prop 5: Creating a minority-rule on county council: County Council already requires a supermajority (60%) to raise taxes - this would require a super-duper majority of 80% (4 of 5) for any tax increases, even the yearly 1% increase the council can choose to use to keep up with inflation. Changing the rules to require this excessive majority would allow a minority veto on the council, giving all power to a minority rule. When the few can overrule the many, public participation carries less weight, public trust is diminished, and the democratic process is undermined.

Help support Snohomish County Democrats' educate voters on the harm of these propositions by contributing securely here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/snoco-charter-2026.