Incorporation Backers Predict No Need For New Taxes

No new taxes necessary. That’s one of the big pitches Citizens for Valley Incorporation is using in its latest effort to form a city in the Spokane Valley, which is scheduled for a vote on May 16.

Group leaders contend the proposed city could operate quite efficiently without one new cent in taxes.

Many people dispute that, saying they think taxes will go up if incorporation passes.

Incorporation boosters offered some numbers at a meeting Monday at Bowdish Junior High School that they say prove their assertion.

“People say it can’t be done,” said Howard Herman, attorney and cochairman of the group. “But it can be done, and is being done, in the city of Federal Way (Wash.).”

Citizens for Valley Incorporation often use Federal Way, a city of 75,320, as a role model. Federal Way incorporated five years ago.

According to the Federal Way budget, that city near Seattle plans to raise about $18.6 million in tax revenue in 1995.

About $5.8 million would come from property taxes, $5.2 million from shared revenue taxes appropriated by the state and $7.6 million in sales taxes.

Federal Way’s municipal tax rate, $1.54 per $1,000 of assessed value, is the lowest among the state’s 15 largest cities. The average municipal tax rate among the top cities is $2.79 per $1,000.

Federal Way, with about 125 employees, contracts out for most of its services, including police protection, which it buys from the King County Sheriff’s Department.

By comparison, the proposed city of Spokane Valley can expect to raise about $31.4 million in taxes, according to figures supplied by Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

Nearly $7 million of that would come from property taxes, $4.5 million from shared revenue and $19.9 million from sales taxes.

The figures for Spokane Valley are based on estimates made by the state Boundary Review Board and assume that services, assessed values and sales remain the same.

“If Federal Way can do it on 18-six, we should be able to do it for 31 plus,” Herman said.

Could, should, would. It depends.

Valley residents may call on a new city government to provide more and better services than they now are receiving. Services are expensive.

A new city council could impose a business and occupation tax and/or a utility tax, which county residents don’t pay now and residents in Federal Way don’t pay.

Of course, the council could follow the plan set forth by Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

Also at Monday’s meeting, incorporation leaders shredded a proposal to consolidate Spokane city and county governments.

Half the freeholders elected in 1992 to analyze local government have proposed doing away with county government and the city of Spokane in favor of one regional government. The other half of the group suggests changes that are far less reaching.

Joe McKinnon, co-chairman of the incorporation group, said the division among freeholders illustrates that the whole process is flawed. Counting on them to provide a solution to an inefficient, unresponsive local government isn’t wise, he said.

“We’ve given them 30 months and $200,000 to produce, and they haven’t produced,” McKinnon said.

Herman said the proposal to form a regional government will do little to address what he perceives as a lack of Valley representation in local affairs.

The Valley’s clout actually would decrease under consolidation, he said. Now, the Valley has one-third of the voice on the county commission because one of the commissioner districts encompasses most of the Valley.

Under the consolidation plan, three of the 13 council districts would be in the Valley, for a one-quarter voice, Herman said.

“We’d be losing representation,” Herman said.

Citizens for Valley Incorporation plans two more meetings to present their proposal. One will be Monday at Horizon Junior High. The other will be Tuesday at North Pines Junior High. Both meetings begin at 7 p.m.