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POSTED: Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

County Council could raise property taxes in Tuesday vote

Whatcom County Council members are considering raising taxes a few dollars a year as part of a two-year budget that already includes cutting positions.

In a 4-3 preliminary vote on Tuesday, Nov. 18, the council agreed to increase property taxes for the county's flood control fund 4 cents for every $1,000 in assessed property value.

For a $300,000 home, that amounts to about $12 extra a year in property taxes. The fund pays for weather-related projects. Council members Barbara Brenner, Sam Crawford and Ward Nelson opposed the increase.

A final vote on the tax resolution will take place Tuesday night, Nov. 25, after a public hearing.

Council members who supported the increase believe the money is badly needed to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in water projects the county has either identified as needed or been told it must do, like stormwater retrofits or major salmon recovery and enhancement projects.

Council members also continue to make changes to County Executive Pete Kremen's proposed budget for 2009-10.

Kremen had proposed a net decrease in property taxes of about 1 percent by significantly decreasing the Conservation Futures Fund tax levy, which pays for acquisition of open space, farmland and timberland. He then wanted to raise the general fund property tax levy in its place, but countywide property tax collection would go down by about $250,000 under the switch.

On Nov. 4, Councilwoman Laurie Caskey-Schreiber convinced her peers to kill the proposal to lower the conservation funding, and Councilman Ward Nelson got the council not to raise the general fund taxes.

Council members also shifted around Kremen's two-year, $366.8 million proposed budget in other ways. Where Kremen would have left the general fund with a $8.2 million reserve, the council's changes would leave about $7.8 million, said County Deputy Administrator Dewey Desler.

"Boy, that's not that far off," Desler said. "We're really consistent in terms of the total numbers."

The general fund pays for most of the work taxpayers see, such as parks, law enforcement, courts, tax collection and elections.

Desler said Wednesday that he hadn't yet had the opportunity to discuss the proposed flood tax increase with Kremen. But he pointed out that a previous tax increase proposal for the Conservation Futures Fund had been vetoed by the executive.

"We think the public needs to be involved in revenue decisions of the county," Desler said. That means the administration is more comfortable with votes by the public, he said.

In their budget plan, council members cut several more vacant public works positions and delayed replacing government vehicles until they're older than the previous standard. They also shifted money out of a fund for one-time replacements of county equipment, like heating and air conditioning units. The shifts will save about $1.85 million through 2010.

Caskey-Schreiber said the change to how vehicles are replaced is only a short-term solution and wouldn't be sustainable over the long run. That's why she supported the two-year proposal.

Council members Sam Crawford and Ward Nelson weren't pleased with the change, however.

"That was a little shell game in my opinion that was not a good investment in our future," Crawford said, "and I think that's wrong."

Caskey-Schreiber was able to get unanimous approval to add $600,000 in the budget for improvements to the county's park system that would be "giving some construction companies some needed work," she said, equating it to local economic stimulus.

Council members were mixed on their thoughts for the budget. Crawford said though some things disappointed him, including the property tax increase proposed by Carl Weimer, he'd still vote for the overall budget.

Councilwoman Barbara Brenner doesn't like it.

"I think we should have cut more," she said. "We're going to have to come back and do it anyway."

Caskey-Schreiber said she was pleased with the budget overall.

"It's not ideal by any means," she said. "However I think we were very conservative in all the forecasting we did. This is a budget that still has a healthy reserve for the county."