Council puts tax issue on ballot

Spokane voters will get a chance to decide this fall whether to increase their property taxes by $3.3 million to pay for ongoing police and fire services, and increases in branch library hours.

City Council members voted 6-1 to place the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.

If approved by voters, the tax measure would lift a state-imposed 1 percent limit on increases in regular property tax collections in both 2006 and 2007.

Unlike bond and special levy measures which require 60 percent voter approval, the regular tax levy can be increased with a majority vote.

The lone dissenter Monday was Councilman Bob Apple, who said he was concerned that the tax measure is making promises to the public for a budget that hasn’t yet been written.

Lifting the levy lid is just one part of a three-part plan to balance the 2006 city budget – and avoid a new round of budget cuts in the wake of substantial cuts made for 2005.

City staffers said lifting the levy lid for two years would give the city time to come up with other solutions to what’s become a perennial budget shortfall.

The levy-lid tax measure would be combined with a proposed increase in the city utility tax, from 17 percent to 20 percent, and requested concessions from labor groups on the cost of health-care benefits.

Without the taxes and cost savings, the city could lose as many as 60 firefighters and police officers next year, the fire and police chiefs said during a council Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday morning.

Budget cuts last year forced Fire Chief Bobby Williams to lay off 29 firefighters, and 19 others left the force through retirement and attrition. Police Chief Roger Bragdon released 25 police officers, a number that’s expected to climb to 36 by March through retirements, he said.

“We are going into the third year in a row of not having enough money to provide the type of service that we should be providing,” Bragdon said. “We are not talking about superior levels of service. We’re talking about just adequate levels of service.”

The proposed increase in the property tax levy would take the expected city assessment for 2006 from $3.28 per $1,000 of assessed valuation up to a state limit of $3.60 per $1,000. It would cost a homeowner an additional $64 on a $200,000 home.

As a second leg of the proposal, the Spokane City Council later this year will consider a 3 percent hike in the city’s utility tax to raise $2.85 million in 2006.

That increase of 3 percent would raise the utility tax rate to 20 percent, giving Spokane the highest utility tax rate in the state. Unlike many other cities, Spokane does not collect a local business and occupation tax.

To ease the impact, City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers suggested earlier this month that the city put a moratorium on “rate-stabilization” charges collected by utilities to pay for future capital improvements to offset a higher utility tax.

The final piece of the plan, endorsed by a citizens’ committee appointed by Mayor Jim West, is for officials to ask city-employee unions to make about $850,000 in concessions, including increases in medical co-payments and higher deductible amounts in health plans.

The proposal would reserve $1.5 million in 2006 revenue for expected cost increases in 2007.

Public safety takes up 57 percent of the spending in the general tax fund, which would grow to about $127 million in 2006 under the plan.

Williams called the tax-and-cost-cutting plan a “three-legged stool.”

Winning adoption is still “a big if,” the fire chief said.

“If not, we are going to be dealing with very similar to what we had last year and that was the loss of personnel.

“It resulted in fewer people on duty every day and two fewer rigs on service every day.”

The fire chief previously has said if the city is forced to cut fire operations, the cuts could result in the closure of two neighborhood fire stations.

A ballot title adopted by the council on Monday indicates the possibility of station closures.

Bragdon said calls for service have increased for both departments even as the number of employees continued to decline.

“I’m a policeman. I want to talk about police problems and respond to police problems,” Bragdon said. “The budget is the biggest problem we face right now and it’s always on my mind.

“I’m not going to breathe easy until after the November elections.”

Pat Partovi, interim library director, said in an interview that the budget plan calls for hiring part-time staffers to keep the city’s three smallest branches at Indian Trail, East Side and Hillyard open at least a half day on Tuesdays through Saturdays. That would allow other librarians to remain at the city’s two larger branches at Shadle Park and South Hill on full-day schedules on Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Cuts this year reduced branch hours to two days a week at the smaller branches and three days a week at the larger branches.

In other business, the council took no action on a proposal to buy out the Spokane Shadow lease of Joe Albi Stadium at a cost of $450,000.

The council also approved a master plan for a University District east of downtown.