Eastside hospital system asks taxpayers to foot more of the bill

For the first time since its founding more than 50 years ago, the public hospital system that serves North King and South Snohomish counties will ask property owners to pay more for health care.

On the Aug. 5 primary election ballot, voters who live in King County Public Hospital District No. 2 will decide whether to more than triple the share of property tax revenue that goes to Kirkland-based EvergreenHealth. The owner of a $1.5 million dollar house would pay $750 a year to fund the hospital system, up from $210 now.

“We have one shareholder,” said EvergreenHealth CEO Ettore Pallazo in an interview with the Business Journal. “It's our community. It's not Wall Street.”

Both EvergreenHealth and nearby Overlake Hospital Medical Center are nonprofits. But EvergreenHealth, as one of the Puget Sound region’s seven public health districts, receives taxpayer funding and serves a defined area that includes Monroe, Mill Creek, Kirkland, Bothell, Kenmore, Redmond, Woodinville, parts of Sammamish, among other areas.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2025/06/02/evergreenhealth-tax-increase-august-election.html