News - Elections

POSTED: Monday, Jun. 22, 2009

Bonner's property tax ordinance goes in front of County Council

Former KGMI radio personality Brett Bonner's property-tax-restricting proposal will go in front of the Whatcom County Council, he announced Tuesday, May 26.

Whatcom County Auditor Shirley Forslof's office verified that Bonner and volunteers had gathered the required 3,042 valid signatures for his mini-initiative. That forces the County Council to vote on it.

Under the proposal, County Council members would have to seek voter approval to take banked capacity, which is a tax increase they decided not to take in past years but have reserved the right to take if needed. Under state law, taxing districts can increase property taxes by only 1 percent per year plus banked capacity.

According to the Whatcom County Assessor's Office, four funds in Bonner's proposal have about $6.8 million in banked capacity that could be taken. That amounts to an $84.31 property tax increase on a $260,000 home, the median price in Whatcom County.

The funds are the county general fund, the road fund, a conservation fund and the flood fund, which is controlled by the council acting as a separate government entity - the Flood Control Zone District Board of Supervisors.

The County Council now has 60 days from the time Forslof's office certified the proposal. The ordinance will be introduced June 9 and will have a public hearing June 23, said Clerk of the Council Dana Brown-Davis.

Bonner said he was pleased and is now working to get as many people at the hearing as possible.

"Hopefully we'll get a good turnout. We got the signatures really so quickly I think there's a lot of people very interested," he said. "It's hard to get the word out when you don't have a talk show."