County to raise taxes by 8 percent

Get ready for higher taxes.

Spokane County commissioners voted Tuesday to increase property taxes by about 8 percent – around eight times the rate of inflation.

Officials said the additional money is needed to make up for several years when the county opted against raising taxes and to compensate for burgeoning health care budgets and other costs that have swelled much higher than inflation.

“What we’re trying to do is keep up with inflation,” said Commissioner Mark Richard.

Even with the boost, commissioners say they plan to trim $2 million from its general fund budget to bring expenses in line with projected revenue. In recent years, the county has used its reserves to balance the budget, a practice that commissioners have vowed to stop.

“We had to balance the budget,” said Commissioner Phil Harris. “If you don’t have the money, you can’t keep the people.”

The county’s general fund pays for courts, the Sheriff’s Office, the jail and several other services.

The exact amount taxes will change on individual bills will be based not only on Tuesday’s decision, but on property value changes, which have fluctuated greatly throughout the county.

Under the numbers approved, the owner of a $100,000 parcel of land that increased in value to $116,000 (a figure based on the average amount home values rose), will pay $13 more, said County CEO Marshall Farnell.

State law gives local governments the right to raise the amount they collect each year by 1 percent without seeking voter approval. However, rules also allow leaders who decide against a tax increase to maintain the ability to collect that tax at a later date. The untaxed amount is called a government’s “banked capacity.”

As the county began amassing a sizable reserve fund in the boom years of the late 1990s, commissioners decided against collecting all the taxes they could. From 1998 through 2003, the county increased taxes by less than the law allowed, and in four of those years, taxes weren’t raised at all.

This year, the county collected $35.9 million in property taxes for its general fund. Normally, the county only would be able to increase that figure by $359,000 plus the amount brought in by new construction, which is expected to be $1.3 million next year. Tuesday’s decision by the commissioners to collect the county’s banked capacity will bring in about another $2.5 million, bringing next year’s total property tax collection to more than $40 million.

The Consumer Price Index for the 12 months that ended in October was 0.9 percent.

There was no discussion about the rise at Tuesday’s meeting and it was approved unanimously in a vote packaged with numerous other items. After the decision, Richard and Harris said they didn’t realize they had approved the increase.

However, they said they had discussed it at a public budget meeting Monday and supported the concept.

Mielke said he understood the measure when he cast his vote. The county penalized itself when it decided against increases that would have helped it keep pace with inflation, he said.

“We ended up penalizing our ability to provide service to the citizens,” Mielke said.