What Price A City? Opposing Campaigns Have Different Figures On Costs Of Incorporation
For many Valley residents living in the proposed boundaries, the difference between voting for incorporation and voting against it next Tuesday will come down to how much incorporation is going to cost them.
Those voters want to know if the proposed cities of Evergreen and Opportunity will have enough money to deliver services necessary for each to function adequately at a price they can afford.
The answers voters receive depend on who is giving them.
Skeptics say at best, proponents don’t know if the cities will have enough money, and, at worst, no way.
Proponents of the two cities maintain funding is adequate. A look at three similarly-sized small cities in the Northwest offers a range of possibilities.
“We’re going to be awash with money,” said Ed Meadows, Opportunity’s chief proponent.
He estimates that Opportunity, a proposed city of about 19,000, would have nearly $6 million income from sales and property tax and shared revenues. With other revenue sources figured in, that amount is sure to increase, Meadows said.
To the east, those trying to form the city of Evergreen project that sales and property tax and shared revenues as high as $12 million in the proposed city of 15,000 once the Spokane Valley Mall opens next summer.
Annexation to Fire District No. 1 for fire protection and contracts with the county to provide other essential services will help new elected officials run frugal city governments and keep taxes down, proponents of the separate cities claim.
“There’s hope for people that are getting tax-weary,” said Arne Woodard, a leader in Evergreen’s incorporation drive.
Dewey Strauss, chairman of a group opposing the incorporation attempts, isn’t buying it. He calls proponents projections guesswork.
How the new cities provide services will be determined by each city’s mayor and seven-member city council.
“They can project all they want,” Strauss said. “There’s so many unknowns out there. That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Woodard maintains there’s nothing to worry about in Evergreen. By his count, Evergreen would operate with a $500,000 surplus - even before the Spokane Valley Mall opens.
“These are not liberal projections,” Woodard said. “These are very conservative projections.”
Leaders of Opportunity’s incorporation campaign have not estimated the proposed city’s expenditures.
But one who has is Doug Rider, the retired Valley Fire chief who helped Strauss form Citizens Against Incorporation. Rider put together a budget forecast for each of the two proposed cities and says neither will make it without help.
In Evergreen, Rider projects a budget revenue shortfall of about $500,000 on expenses of $5.2 million, without sewer costs and some other liabilities.
For Opportunity residents, Rider claims the news is even worse - almost a $1 million budget deficit on expenditures of $6.6 million, again without sewers and some other costs.
“I hope people realize there’s no free lunch,” Rider said. “If you want services, it’s going to cost money.”
Proponents of both cities call such claims by Strauss and Rider “scare tactics,” and stick to their estimates.
“People say if you’ve got a positive, you’re too optimistic,” Woodard said. “And if you’ve got a negative, you can’t make it.”
Which side is right remains to be seen. In three Northwest cities similar in size to Evergreen and Opportunity - Burien, Wash., Caldwell, Idaho, and Kalispell, Mont. - government will spend between $19.4 million and $29 million to operate in 1997.
Burien, a city of about 28,000 that incorporated four years ago, has the smallest budget of the three at $19.4 million, but its director of finance and administration said it’s not cheap to run a city.
“It’s always a shock when people discover the cost,” said Linda Gorton, who started working for the city of Burien right after it incorporated in February 1993. “It’s just staggering.”
The way Burien provides major services resembles recommendations proponents of both Evergreen and Opportunity have made about how to run the proposed Valley cities.
Burien, located just south of Seattle, contracts with King County for police protection, jail space and street maintenance, Gorton said. The city, which has an assessed value double the amount of each of the proposed Valley cities, also annexed to the local library district, and residents pay taxes to a fire district for fire service.
Proponents of both Evergreen and Opportunity have recommended doing the same to provide those services here. They claim residents in the proposed Valley cities will receive the same level of service they do now for the same amount of money or less because the county’s road tax will be lifted within the city.
In Burien, city officials raised property taxes 13 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to $1.60 the year after incorporating. Property taxes there haven’t moved, up or down, since, Gorton said.
“Did we raise taxes? Yes. But they would have paid that or more with the county,” Gorton said.
Residents in Caldwell, Idaho and Kalispell, Mont., pay considerably more in property taxes than Burien residents. The 1997 budgets also are higher - $19.5 million and for Caldwell and $29 million for Kalispell.
However, both cities have been incorporated for several decades and provide nearly all of their own services. Kalispell also plans to spend $2.3 million on operation of the city’s airport this year, while Caldwell will spend nearly $1 million.
“We have just about everything a bigger city would have,” said Evee Kiler, Caldwell’s financial director.
About the only major service Caldwell, a city of 24,000 just west of Boise, contracts with Canyon County for is jail space.
Kalispell’s budget also isn’t as lean as proponents of Evergreen and Opportunity are proposing. While the northwestern Montana city contracts with Flathead County for jail service, expenses for 1997 include, among other things, a city-run ambulance service and fire department.
Amy Robertson, Kalispell’s finance director, said the $29 million the city plans to spend this year is misleading because it includes a $12 million tax for redevelopment. The city’s typical operating budget is closer to $17 million, Robertson said.
Proponents of Opportunity and Evergreen say the two Valley communities would be their own cities and should not be closely compared with cities such as Burien, Caldwell and Kalispell.
Skeptics of the Valley proposals worry that even though proponents of Evergreen and Opportunity don’t intend for the cities to start out like Caldwell and Kalispell, they may end up that way. There are too many unknowns about services, including sewers, they say.
“There’s never been a proposal that’s been complete,” said Dennis Scott, county director of public works. “I’m not saying they don’t have enough money. I’m saying they don’t have a clue.”
Burien faced similar questions about services.
“The first trick was to define that level” of service, Burien’s Gorton said.
That will be up to city councils in each of the cities if they successfully incorporate.
Scott said he will wait until after the Feb. 4 election to figure service costs.
Spokane County Sheriff John Goldman said contracting for police protection would cost each Valley city more than $1 million to maintain the current level of protection - nine-tenths of a deputy per 1,000 residents.
If residents vote to increase staffing levels consistent with the city of Spokane’s 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, that figure would rise to about $2 million each.
Contracting for jail space and accident investigations, which are primarily handled by the Washington State Patrol, would cost more, Goldman said. WSP troopers do not investigate accidents in incorporated areas, Goldman said.
In Burien, the police services bill will total nearly $4 million this year.
“The Valley gets the benefit of the economy of scale,” Goldman said. “We’d never try to take advantage of a contract situation, but we can’t do it at a loss either.”
Annexation to the Valley Fire District would leave taxes collected for fire service unchanged. Residents currently pay $1.23 per $1,000 of assessed value and would continue to pay that amount after annexation, said Valley Fire Chief Pat Humphries.
Critics also are concerned that if costs start to rise, the cities will begin levying utility taxes and business license and franchise fees to remedy the situation. Neither Woodard nor Meadows said they see the need for those taxes and they don’t support them.
Burien draws about $125,000 in business license and franchise fees, but does not have a utility tax.
“The people want a guarantee about what life is going to be like with incorporation,” Woodard said. “I wish I had that.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Comparing budgets
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FIRE QUESTIONS Valley Fire commissioners and administrators will discuss fire service costs for the proposed cities at a public meeting tonight. Leaders of both proposed cities will be at the meeting, which begins at 4 p.m. at Valley Fire Station No. 1, 10319 E. Sprague.