At Tuesday’s meeting, Redmond City Council unanimously voted to put two property tax levy measures on the Aug. 4 ballot.
The vote was 6-0, with one council member, Byron Shutz, absent.
One levy will address public safety and infrastructure. The second levy will address the city’s parks.
BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS
The total cost of the two levies is $33.2 million and voters will be able to vote on each measure separately. For a home with an assessed value of $500,000, that comes down to an increase in property tax of $174.50 per year, or $14.54 per month.
Mike Bailey, finance director for the city, said the six-year levies are split into ongoing and one-time costs.
The ongoing cost is about $4.83 million, meaning that is how much it will cost each year, for a total of just less than $29 million, Bailey said. Broken down, it is about $4.36 million for the public safety and infrastructure levy and $474,500 for the park improvements levy.
According to the city’s website, these ongoing costs include continued support for police, school resource officers and firefighters from a previous levy, investments in additional police personnel for property crimes and maintaining the city’s roads and sidewalks and parks and trails.
The one-time cost of the two levies is about $4.2 million, with $200,000 for public safety and infrastructure and $4.044 million for park improvements. Bailey said these expenses are for specific projects or items such as outfitting a new police officer with a uniform and car or a specific project such as fixing up a park and its parking lot.
WHY THEY’RE NEEDED
While Redmond City Council voted just this week, the levies were in the works for a while.
Council member Hank Myers said the levies were the only item on the agenda for council’s annual retreat, which was in February this year.
He said with the council, it wasn’t a matter of whether or not to have a levy, it was about figuring out what would be the best package to present to voters.
Myers said while he always feels the city can operate more efficiently, the things the levies will pay for are good projects. Though he added that these projects should have been included in the city’s biennial budget — which was adopted in December 2014 — in the first place.
Council member Kim Allen added that the levies are also to help the city keep up with inflation as cities are only allowed to increase property taxes by 1 percent annually.
“Keeping up with inflation is hard,” she said.
The levies are about catching up, keeping up and looking toward the future, Allen added.
CITIZEN INPUT
Throughout the process, the city has sought out public input.
And Tuesday, when council voted to put the levies on the August ballot, was no different as there was a public hearing at the meeting before the vote.
Tom Sanko, a 20-year Redmond resident and member of the city’s Parks and Trails Commission, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. He said he is in favor of putting the levy to a vote and addressed council to urge them to put the levies on the ballot. Sanko added that he will be voting yes.
“The levy provides for necessary safety improvements in terms of increasing police service, maintaining school resource officers and maintaining firefighter staffing,” he said. “Additionally the levy funds sidewalk, crosswalk and pedestrian crossing improvements to improve walkability in Redmond. Last but certainly not least, it also funds park and trail maintenance and enables substantial improvements in a number of city parks.”
Sanko added that the levy addresses a lack of funding for the city’s parks — particularly in the neighborhoods — especially considering the rapid growth Redmond is experiencing.
“Parks funding has been an issue since before the Great Recession in 2008,” he said.
Angela Birney, a 17-year resident, also spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. As the current chair of the Parks and Trails Commission, the parks levy includes many of the items that would make a big impact on the city’s park system, including upgrading Westside Park, major improvements at Idylwood Park and ongoing maintenance for the city’s parks.
“In the next few years, we as a city will have to reevaluate other improvements that might need to be made, but I feel the levies are a fair representation of input received from the public,” Birney said. “They will also fill a financial need to keep the city’s price of government at appropriate levels.”
MOVING FORWARD
Now that council has voted to put the levies on the ballot, the City of Redmond is now requesting letters of interest from citizens interested in serving on one of two Property Tax Levy Committees.
Residents serving on these committees are responsible for writing arguments for voters’ pro and con positions for each of the two levies.
These arguments must be filed with King County by May 18, with rebuttals filed by May 20. In addition to writing ballot arguments, residents serving on these committees (up to three people per committee) will be responsible for responding to media and citizen questions on the ballot measure over the next three months.
Residents who would like to be considered to serve on these committees should submit their letter of interest to the City Clerk, City of Redmond, PO Box 97010, Redmond, WA 98073-9710 or mhart@redmond.gov by 4 p.m. on April 24. Appointments to the committees will be made by the City Council on April 28 and submitted to King County by May 12.
For more information, contact Lisa Rhodes, communications manager, at larhodes@redmond.gov or (425) 556-2427.
