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The Spokane Valley City Council had money on its mind Tuesday, voting to increase what the city collects in property taxes and getting a rundown of the cost increases associated with the city’s public safety contract with Spokane County.
The council will take its second and final vote on whether or not there is “substantial need” to increase next year’s city property tax at $10,799, 500 – a $299,500 or 2.9 percent more than 2009 – next week. Otherwise the city, under state law, could collect only a maximum of 1 percent.
Of the 2.9 percent, the city will collect 1.1-percent higher of the city’s portion of a home owner’s property tax, which is about 13 percent of the total tax bill. On a median-value home in Spokane Valley of about $164,325, the increase equates to about 27 cents more a month.
The remaining 1.8 percent will come from new construction that is anticipated in 2010.
While the majority of the council members said the increase – which is the maximum allowed under state law -- is simply the cost of doing business, not everyone was in agreement.
Council Member Gary Schimmels – who is running unopposed for re-election in November – thought the city should look elsewhere to balance its 2010 budget.
“Well, I’d really strongly suggest that we pull that $300,000 from another fund,” Schimmels said. “It’s taking away money, but I’m not sure that we should be raising taxes. I’m opposed to that at the moment, especially in this economy.”
Council Member Bill Gothmann said not increasing revenues and drawing on reserves was a recipe for disaster.
“There are two ways a government can operate,” he said. “We can wait for the precipice to come and drop off it, or we can go the slow and steady way.”
He added that small increases are “just a good way to run government.”
Deputy Mayor Dick Denenny said costs the city can’t control – like 3.25-percent wage increases for sheriff’s deputies that impact the city’s public safety contract cost – have to be made up somewhere.
“I think if you ask any citizens on the street if they would like to maintain that level of service, they would say yes,” Denenny said.
With regard to public safety, the council learned the city’s public safety contract cost increased just over 9 percent from last year, rising from $17.1 million to $18.6. Some areas of the contract, such as for animal control, saw modest hikes (.81 percent). However, others recorded giant leaps, like the city’s portion of Geiger Corrections Center operations (82.4 percent).
For the latter, Morgan Koudelka, senior administrative analyst, said the sheriff’s office is now passing along the cost of its home-monitoring program for offenders to local jurisdictions rather than charging them to the participants themselves.
“There were a lot of surprises that we did not expect,” Koudelka said.
Koudelka suggested that the city and county continue to improve efficiency between the two entities by communicating more. He did add, however, that isn’t always easy.
“The county spends a lot of time fielding questions from us,” Koudelka said.
“They probably feel like we question everything.”
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By
Mike Huffman
