Verner’s tax request denied

Spokane taxpayers won’t be asked for extra money by city leaders in November.

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 5 to 2 to reject a request from Mayor Mary Verner to place a measure on the November ballot to pay for a new police evidence room, a shooting range and an animal shelter – projects that would cost almost $16 million.

Council members, however, pledged to work for a new proposal to pay for the projects. Some of them suggested combining the police needs with a fire bond that is likely to be on ballot next year.

Administrators noted that there isn’t another significant tax measure on the November ballot, but that next year it would compete with hundreds of millions in taxes expected to be requested by Spokane Public Schools and Spokane County.

Verner said the projects in her recommendation are urgently needed.

“We could choose to defer again, and the world probably wouldn’t stop spinning on its axis,” Verner said. “But the time has come to pay the piper, and if it’s not done now it still will need to be done.”

Councilman Steve Corker said he believes the voters need a “breather” from a tax request, especially given the slow economy. He added that delaying a tax vote will give the city a chance to formulate a better long-term solution.

Corker joined council members Mike Allen, Bob Apple, Al French and Nancy McLaughlin in rejecting a November vote. They said that the public has not had time to digest the request or make sense of the proposal.

Allen agreed with Verner that November would be a great time to ask voters for the money. But he said that the city needs a better long-term plan for dealing with needed construction projects.

“There is an opportunity, but are we as a city ready for this opportunity?” Allen said. “I don’t think we are.”

Councilman Richard Rush said the city can’t wait to build a new evidence room. Criminal cases are at stake and conditions in the property room are poor, he said.

“I’ll admit that it’s nickel and diming the voter. But we’re looking at the risk here that I don’t think we should ask our voters to bear,” Rush said. “We’re playing Russian roulette, but it’s not with one bullet in the chamber. It’s with five bullets in the chamber.”

Verner’s proposal would have paid for a $3 million addition to the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service shelter as part of the city’s plan to join SCRAPS for animal control services in 2010. It also would have paid $2 million for a new police shooting range and $10.8 million for a new evidence building.

Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said that earlier this year she pursued purchase of an existing structure but that she later learned of an option to build a new building on land occupied by the street department. Moving to that site, she said, would position the city well for a future move to a new complex on the property.

“Let’s put it in and anchor it in a place that could have a police campus in 25 years,” Kirkpatrick said.

Cip Paulsen, who attended Monday’s meeting, said Kirkpatrick was referencing the old Costco store on Third Avenue. Paulsen said his father owns the building and that the city offered to pay $4.75 million for it earlier this year before the department had second thoughts.

After the council vote, Paulsen said he came to testify and was angered that Joe Shogan, the council president, did not open the debate to public testimony.

Shogan said he didn’t see anyone in the audience who wanted to testify.

French said estimates for constructing a new property building are $200 a square foot. He said the Costco site would have been about a quarter the cost on a square-foot basis.

Kirkpatrick argued vigorously for the council to put the issue on the ballot. She also said it was her idea to add the property room into a tax measure.

The mayor “had the courage to jump onto my vision,” Kirkpatrick said. “It doesn’t make sense to me or to the future of this city not go forward.”

Shogan asked Allen and French to join him in formulating a new plan to pay for the projects.

“These aren’t good times, but the fact is that cities must continue to operate,” Shogan said. “I don’t think we were elected to be afraid. We were elected to make decisions.”