Two tax increases will be on the table when the Snohomish County Council adopts the budget next week.
In his proposed 2005 budget, County Executive Aaron Reardon didn’t ask for increases in the county’s three property tax levies. Reardon has said recent votes at the ballot box show residents don’t approve of higher taxes.
But when the county council begins final deliberations on the budget Monday, they’ll consider increasing two out of the three property tax levies – the roads levy and the general property tax levy by 1 percent.
Councilman Gary Nelson has asked the council to consider increasing the road levy, which would mean an extra $435,000 for road improvements next year. And Councilman Kirke Sievers has put a possible increase in the general property tax levy in front of the council, which would mean another $650,000 in tax revenues in 2005.
Last year, the council approved 1 percent increases in the roads levy and the conservation futures levy, the tax that pays to buy open space for parks, and preserves farms and timberlands. Council members must vote each year to set the levies’ rates.
The road tax passed unanimously, and the conservation levy passed, by a 3-2 vote when Nelson, a Republican, sided with Democrats Sievers and Dave Gossett.
And in 2002, all three levies passed in 3-2 votes along the same lines.
This year, an increase in the conservation futures levy isn’t likely. An ordinance that would include an increase, and $3.1 million in more tax money, hasn’t been prepared for Monday’s public hearing and subsequent council vote.
Phone home: The war in Iraq made a dramatic interruption to this week’s finance committee meeting. As council members were talking about policy options on setting a cap on the number of full-time county employees, chief of staff John Chelminiak burst in to tell council analyst Sharie Freemantle that her son was on the phone.
Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Freemantle is serving with P Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Marines, somewhere in Iraq. And last weekend, his platoon withstood a 36-hour-long mortar attack.
“My son!” his mother exclaimed as she sprinted from the room.
She later returned, almost giddy with relief, to report her son was on the move but OK.
The council adopted the Marine’s platoon earlier this month, and has been sending care packages its way.
Lance Cpl. Freemantle made one request during his call: Please send warm clothing.
Claim of the week: An Everett woman wants $497 from the county. The woman ran out of gas on Highway 9, and the rear bumper to her 1996 Ford Mustang was cracked when a deputy sheriff used his patrol car to push her out of an intersection.
Next week: The county council will adopt a capital facilities plan, the document that spells out how a school district will build new schools to handle growth through the year 2009, for 13 school districts in the county. The school districts for Arlington, Edmonds, Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Lakewood, Marysville, Monroe, Mukilteo, Northshore, Snohomish, Stanwood-Camano Island and Sultan have plans up for adoption.
How you can get involved: A public hearing is at 9 a.m., Monday in the Jackson Board Room, sixth floor of the county administration building.
Reporter Brian Kelly covers county government for the Herald. He can be reached at 425-339-3422;kelly@heraldnet.com.
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