Adam Lynn

Joe McKinnon, co-chairman of Citizens for Valley Incorporation, listens to the vote results. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

A month ago, Spokane Valley voters appeared ready to form their own city. A scientific poll showed incorporation was likely to pass.

Once again, it's decision day in the Spokane Valley. Valley voters go to the polls for the third time this decade to decide if they want to form their own city. Registered voters who live within the boundaries of the proposed municipality may cast ballots at their regular voting places. It's too late to register.

The group leading the effort to form a city in the Spokane Valley insists the proposition is solely about the Valley and its future. It's not. Everyone who lives in Spokane County has a stake in what happens Tuesday when Valley incorporation is up for a vote for the third time since 1990. Not everyone has a say, though. Only registered voters who live within the proposed city's boundaries get to cast ballots on Valley incorporation, which would create a municipality of about 73,000 people, the seventh largest in Washington. If the proposition passes, and recent polls indicate it could, local government would be radically altered. Some say it would be a change for the worse. Others say it would help improve local government. County Commissioner Skip Chilberg said incorporation would be devastating to county government. Conservative estimates show the county stands to lose $10 million in revenue generated within the boundaries of the proposed city. The county plans to spend about $81 million this year. As an unincorporated area, the Valley sends its property and sales tax dollars to the county. If the Valley incorporates, the new city will keep most of that revenue. That money isn't just a number in some bureaucrat's computer, Chilberg said. It's cash that pays for services used by everyone in the county, whether they live in the city of Spokane, the North Side suburbs or the wheat country of the northern Palouse. Departments that provide services for city and county residents both, including the treasurer, assessor, auditor, coroner and prosecutor, will be hurt if incorporation passes, he said. "The level of work in those departments won't change simply because of incorporation," Chilberg said. Revenue to maintain rural roads also will decline, he said. That means potholes in the roads to places such as Mount Spokane and the apple orchards in Greenbluff will be filled less frequently. Snow will be plowed less often. "The quality of service, not only for the rest of the county but for the people of the Spokane Valley, will suffer," Chilberg said. Howard Herman, co-chairman and attorney for Citizens for Valley Incorporation, said Friday he wasn't going "to shed any tears" for people who would remain in the unincorporated area. Those residents chose to live in unincorporated areas and shouldn't expect high levels of service, he said during a taping of "Spokane This Week," a local affairs program on KSPS-TV. If they such want urban services as sewers and high-capacity roads, they should pay their share, Herman said. It's time for the Valley to stop subsidizing the rest of the county with tax money, he added. Some people see incorporation as an opportunity to restructure Spokane County government, which recently has been criticized as bloated and archaic. Commissioners have formed a committee that is studying the potential impacts of incorporation and how the county is likely to respond. Committee member Marshall Farnell, the county budget director, said not much has been done yet. "We have plenty of time," Farnell said. "Until it happens, I don't know what we can do." The county likely will be forced to lay off several dozen employees. The Planning Department probably would take the biggest hit, as incorporation supporters say the new city should set up its own planning staff. Incorporation could also have impacts on residents of Spokane, who face the possibility of higher garbage bills. Proponents of a Valley city have suggested that the new city might pull out of the countywide garbage disposal project, with its waste-to-energy incinerator. If that happened, rates for remaining customers would have to increase to cover an estimated $2 million loss. Only the city council of the new city could make that decision. Incorporation also would mean less state revenue for every city in Washington, including the 11 now within Spokane County. The state currently receives a cut of the property and sales tax revenue collected statewide and divides a portion of it up among all the municipalities in Washington based on population. The Western Washington city of Federal Way, which has a comparable population of about 74,000, will receive more than $9 million in shared state revenue this year. Incorporation would mean that the current cities would get less state aid so the city of Spokane Valley could get its share.

As the incorporation campaign winds to a close, the cash is pouring into the opposition's coffers. Concerned Citizens Against Valley Incorporation reported raising more than $13,000 last week, bringing its total to more than $17,000 in just more than two weeks.

A map in the special pull-out section inside Thursday's Valley Voice was incorrect. In the Edgecliff neighborhood, the sourthern boundary of the proposed city of Spokane Valley is 12th Avenue. The map showed the wrong street as the boundary. This correction was published on Saturday, May 13, 1995.

Sue Delucchi, at one time a vocal opponent of incorporation, is now a political consultant to the Citizens for Valley Incorporation. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

CORRECTION: Thursday, May 11, 1995 The age of Joe McKinnon, a leader in the Valley incorporation effort, was incorrectly reported in Saturday's Valley Voice. He is 53. Also, McKinnon was recalled in the early 1960s from a national committeeman post with the College Young Democrats of America, not the postition stated in the story. 1. Howard Herman Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Joe McKinnon Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

John Bording has had the "Vote No" sign since the last incorporatin election in April of 1994. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The membership of the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce is split over the question of incorporation, an informal survey shows. Those members who live within the boundaries of the proposed city of Spokane Valley tend to support the issue, the survey found, while those who live outside are overwhelmingly against it.

Many of the people who attended a Wednesday forum on the direction of local government had the same destination in mind. Most agreed that local officials should provide more accountability and better representation and be more receptive and inclusive. Which path to take to get to the magical place was a matter of opinion, however.

Denenny

Incorporation supporter Howard Herman discusses municipal financing at a recent town hall meeting. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

A man who lives across the road from a gravel pit near Moab Junction said Thursday that heavy equipment at the mine roused his infant son from sleep one recent day. At 5:10 a.m. "It wasn't pleasant," he said at a community meeting held at the Tri-Community Grange near Newman Lake.

1. Hazel Kugler of Robinson Research polls Valley residents on their current stand on the incorporation issue. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Employees of Robinson Research make telephone calls to Valley residents about incorporation. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane Valley man said this week that an incorporation supporter tried to keep him from asking questions about the effort at a recent meeting. Bob Blum, a one-time candidate for county assessor, said that Gene Hinkel of Citizens for Valley Incorporation approached him before Tuesday night's town hall meeting at North Pines Junior High. According to Blum, Hinkel told him not to ask questions during the meeting because he had already asked plenty during previous gatherings.

A proposal to consolidate city and county government isn't very popular among Spokane Valley residents, according to a recent poll, and the thought of annexing to the city of Spokane is even less attractive. The poll of 400 residents of the proposed new city in the Spokane Valley who are likely to vote on May 16 was conducted for The Spokesman-Review by Robinson Research earlier this month. One of the questions in the poll asked what voters think would be the best government option for the Valley.

Leaders of the effort to form a city in the Spokane Valley predicted they'd be playing to a tough crowd when they took their show to Horizon Junior High School. They were right.

Spokane Valley voters appear poised to form the seventhlargest city in the state. Results of a scientific poll released Tuesday show that Valley voters are likely to support the latest incorporation effort, the third in five years.

Donn Livoni's infectious energy pushed him past the 38 other candidates for the top job in the Liberty School District, the school board president said. "Probably the most impressive thing about him is his enthusiasm," Sharon Colby said this week after the board announced it hired Livoni to replace Superintendent Armin Vogt. Vogt is retiring after spending 33 years in the district as a teacher, principal and administrator.

A gravel pit on the south side of Trent near Moab is disruptive for some of its neighbors. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County will complete work on the Argonne Road underpass regardless of the outcome of an incorporation vote, the county engineer said this week. "That project is going to need to go ahead no matter what happens," Ron Hormann said Wednesday. The fate of other county road projects in the Valley isn't so certain if residents vote to form their own city on May 16.

Signs in favor of incorporation litter the main streets of the Valley. No one seems to be willing to take charge of organizing an opposition moverment. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The incorporation bandwagon is starting to fill. Spokane Valley Fire District commissioners voted unanimously this week to endorse the incorporation proposition. They joined Carnhope Irrigation District No. 7 and the 4th District Republican Action Club in throwing support behind the effort to form a city in the Valley.