City voters may go for tax boost, poll indicates

Spokane voters might be willing to pay more taxes to slow the budget bleeding at City Hall. A telephone survey commissioned by the city found that 69 percent of voters would be likely to support a property tax increase of up to 55 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to prevent further cuts in city police, fire and library services, according to figures released Wednesday by city officials. The survey of 250 likely Spokane voters cost $8,000 and was authorized by Mayor Jim West.

But while many citizens reacted favorably to the tax, they also indicated displeasure with the direction the city is now headed.

The city faces a $6 million shortfall next year. A 55-cent levy increase would generate about $5 million, but under state caps the city would be prohibited from asking for more than 32 cents per $1,000.

Moore Information conducted the poll, which has a margin of error of 6 percentage points, during the weekend of Aug. 13-14, asking whether respondents would support a property tax increase. The survey also measured whether people would react more favorably when presented with a variety of arguments.

Of those surveyed, 42 percent initially said they would “definitely” approve such a tax, with 27 percent saying they would “probably” support it. Twenty-four percent said they would “definitely” or “probably” reject an increased property tax. The rest were undecided.

“This at least says it’s worth talking about,” said West, who added. “I’m all in favor of going back to the voters and having the voters have their say.”The Spokane City Council would have to decide within the next three weeks whether to place a property tax proposition on the November ballot.

“If the council doesn’t want to do that, they’ll have to help come up with ways to make the cuts,” West said.

People polled were most convinced by arguments promising city union employees would pay a greater percentage of their benefit costs and detailing previous reductions and the cuts that failure to produce more tax revenue would create.

City employees now pay 7 percent of all medical premiums. Most employees’ own premiums are entirely paid by the city, but the employees pay a portion of premiums for their dependents, said city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

Survey takers told respondents that 70 positions would be cut from police, fire and libraries on top of 154 jobs already eliminated.

“Voters want to know cuts were already made,” said Moore Information’s Stan Shore.

Those surveyed were least likely to be influenced by mayoral or council support of such a property tax.

Just 36 percent said West’s support and 47 percent said the council’s support would make them more likely to vote for a tax increase.

The results were more encouraging than those of a survey taken on Spokane’s street bond issue before its passage last year, said Shore.

“This is a strong showing for a property tax levy,” he said.

The survey didn’t measure reaction to arguments likely to be used by opponents of the tax, such as raises recently granted city employees.

“That would have been a good idea. I didn’t have any negative arguments,” Shore explained.

That’s a failing of the survey, said tax critic Mike Fagan, a member of the mayor’s ad-hoc citizen task force addressing the city’s budget woes.

The survey was designed to measure the “mood” of Spokane voters, said West.

It’s pretty grim, said Shore.

Fifty percent of those surveyed said they think the city is heading in the wrong direction. Only 38 percent said Spokane is going in the right direction.

Budget prospects are equally grim.

Increasing property taxes won’t solve all the city’s problems.

State law limits Spokane’s levy to $3.60 per $1,000 valuation, leaving just 32 cents to work with, making $3.3 million the most it can add to its coffers, even with voter support. That’s not enough to fill the $6 million budget gap.

“Frankly we may need to do a combination of the utility tax and a voter approved property tax increase,” said West.

The city can raise the utility tax without a public vote, but it would likely be an unpopular move. The same survey used to evaluate the prospects of a property tax measure found that only 24 percent thought raising the utility tax would be a good idea.

In addition to raising revenue through higher taxes, the city can also balance its budget by cutting expenses.

West warned members of the citizens committee that while the 2006 budget is the immediate crisis that must be dealt with, future years also don’t look bright because the gap between growing costs and limited revenue options will continue to grow.