SNOHOMISH COUNTY—Kelli Johnson, candidate for Snohomish County Council, is running to expand healthcare services for the region, balance the county budget with no serious tax increases, and champion for affordable housing throughout the district and County at large.
Kelli Johnson is challenging incumbent Washington State Representative and County Councilman Sam Low (R-Lake Stevens) for the district 5 Position.
Johnson was disappointed by the 4% property tax increase in the Snohomish County 2025-2026 biennium. She was also disappointed by the statewide property tax increases approved by Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson. If elected, she wants to dive into the budget’s deficit to uncover if the root cause is truly a lack of tax revenue and come up with more fiscally responsible decisions.
“There has to be some alternate consideration than just continuously raising property taxes,” said Johnson. “I do realize that there is a cap on how much can be raised every year but there also needs to be a consideration that homes are valued at a higher rate than what they have ever been in the State of Washington and at what point in time does raising property taxes start to price people out of owning a home?”
Regarding economic development, Johnson believes the County (especially as it begins to redevelop portions of Snohomish and Lake Stevens) could take notes from the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Redevelopment efforts regarding how local businesses are attracted, and the space is developed out while still maintaining green spaces in a way that honors its natural beauty.
“It would be nice to try and attract Microsoft and Amazon to build satellite locations up here so people wouldn’t have to keep driving down to Seattle to go to work,” said Johnson.
Johnson’s next platform point, healthcare, is one that is near and dear to her heart as a healthcare professional by trade.
Johnson informed the Lynnwood Times that she felt compelled to run for County Council through the work she has been doing over the last three years – advocating legislation that would improve healthcare – and, by doing so, recognizing ways that government could be “doing a better job at improving the healthcare they are receiving, specifically in hospitals and clinics.”
“The pace that healthcare is worsening is not being kept up with the pace of legislation that is being passed,” said Johnson. “I feel that healthcare workers are often too busy to get involved so we don’t get a lot of opportunities to talk with legislators to share what we’re experiencing firsthand. I [also] feel that people that run hospitals and clinics do have those opportunities so there’s this imbalance in representation.”
Johnson’s first foray into politics was when the Providence Hospital workers went on strike last November. During this time, she traveled to championed to add staffing language to their contract to make up for the gap in legislation that would allow for, what she calls, “safe staffing.”
As far as another policy point – affordable housing — Johnson believes, is directly intertwined with how expensive healthcare is. Expensive healthcare, Johnson told the Lynnwood Times, directly impacts one’s ability to afford a house, property tax, and cost of living in general. The housing crises, in Johnson’s mind, also directly impacts the homeless crises.
“Being homeless is traumatic. Working 10/11 years in the E.R. I have a lot of experience of treating homeless people. A lot of ways people cope with that traumatic experience, sleeping out in the rain in the winter, I can understand why a lot of homeless people rely on drugs to get through that,” said Johnson. “So what are we doing to alleviate that?”
Johnson’s solution is more mental health professionals which directly ties into her emphasis on expanding healthcare services.
To tackle the affordable housing issue, and by extension the homeless crises, Johnson would like to see more diversity in the sizes of homes that are being built; not only large houses, not only condos, but small square footage houses where people can still strive to work towards, build home equity, and work their way up to larger homes in the future.
“In my generation we’ve watched the housing industry become a place where the new homes that are being built are bigger, bigger, and bigger [as far as square footage]. We’ve also gotten to a place where it’s important to have homes that are 1,200 square feet,” said Johnson. “Something that’s a little better than owning a condo or an apartment, that is obtainable but is still something to work toward.”
As the county continues to grow and develop its buildable land, Johnson would also like to see a percentage go towards preserving its natural beauty, wildlife, and plants so that new developments can co-exist with native wildlife.
Johnson has moved around quite a bit in her early life but claims Illinois as her home state. She originally moved out to Washington after visiting for a camping trip with a friend and falling in love.
When she’s not working as a nurse, she enjoys camping/hiking, birding, reading/researching, running, gardening, and baking.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
