Voters back basic services issue

Spokane’s property tax ballot measure won broad support Tuesday across the city, particularly in inner-city neighborhoods where public safety services are often in demand.

“We know that police and fire – public safety services – are extremely important in our neighborhood for a lot of reasons, transients and so forth,” Gary Pollard, chair of the Riverside Neighborhood Council in the downtown area, said on Wednesday. “There are a lot of problems in the central city.”

Sixty percent of all city voters said “yes” to the measure that will raise property taxes by 32 cents on every $1,000 of assessed valuation to pay for basic services such as police, fire, libraries, parks and streets.

In ballots counted at this point, the proposal was passing in all but four of the city’s 120 precincts, and in one of the four, no votes have been counted at all.

Support climbed about 2-to-1 in precincts that flank Interstate 90 stretching from the Spokane River to the middle of the South Hill, as well as some parts of West Central and just north of Francis Avenue along Division Street. Working-class neighborhoods of northeast Spokane and the East Central neighborhood also supported the levy increase by strong margins.

“Those are areas where we respond to a lot of calls,” said Fire Chief Bobby Williams.

Many residents in those lower-income neighborhoods lack adequate health insurance, and they likely view the Fire Department’s emergency response system as vital for life safety, he said.

Williams said earlier this year that as many as two neighborhood fire stations could be closed if the city was forced to cut $6.5 million from its 2006 budget, on top of $18 million in cuts for 2005.

Proponents of the tax increase, including Mayor Jim West and leaders of the city’s largest unions, characterized the property tax measure as essential to preserving existing levels of public safety staffing and restoring branch library service.

West said he believes voters showed a greater level of trust in City Hall to manage the community’s tax resources because of efforts to prioritize and trim the budget in the past two years.

The mayor used a similar public-safety pitch to win approval a year ago of a $117 million property-tax bond issue to pay for street reconstruction over 10 years.

“Again, it goes back to who you trust,” the mayor said. “You can’t have a good strong community if you don’t feel safe, and it’s not protected.”

Passage of the property tax measure also provides West with a significant political victory heading into a Dec. 6 recall election over charges that he used his office and computer to seek personal relationships with young men. In addition, West on Monday gained a tentative agreement from the city’s largest labor union – Local 270 of rank-and-file workers – on wage and health care concessions worth $2 million over two years.

Those accomplishments “demonstrate I’m still working hard at City Hall to make things happen,” West said.

Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, one of West’s chief critics in the recall case and a consistent advocate for police and fire, said West is wrong to take credit for the tax measure passing on Tuesday.

“It had nothing to do with him,” she said. “The mayor shouldn’t be taking credit. It’s the citizens, the taxpayers of Spokane who want to protect their public safety and keep libraries open.”

The property tax increase will raise $3.3 million in each of the next two years, not enough to fill a projected budget gap of $6.5 million without additional taxes or employee concessions.

The City Council is now expected to consider an increase in the tax on city utilities from 17 to 20 percent, as well as a reduction in the card-room tax to help city casinos remain competitive against casinos outside the city that pay lower taxes or fees.

Council President Dennis Hession said council members are not uniformly committed to supporting the utility tax increase, and they are troubled by a casino owner’s request to have the card room tax lowered in lieu of the business relocating outside the city. Also, the council is under pressure to maintain city grants to human services agencies. Budget adoption is expected no sooner than Nov. 28.