Council OKs tax increase

The Spokane Valley City Council voted Tuesday to increase property taxes next year as much as state law allows.

The council unanimously set next year’s city property tax levy at $10,799,500, up $299,500 or 2.9 percent from this year’s levy.

The city is allowed to collect a 1 percent increase, based on its established tax base, but the limit doesn’t apply to new construction.

Then, as required by state law, the council voted on a second ordinance confirming that it really intended in its previous action to collect the maximum amount allowed.

Dean Grafos, who is running for council against newly appointed Councilman Ian Robertson, urged the council to cut the budget instead.

Councilman Bill Gothmann said public safety accounts for about 60 percent of the city’s general fund budget. Cutting the budget would require cutting the city’s contract for police protection from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, he asserted.

“I don’t think the sheriff’s fund has anything to do with this,” Councilwoman Rose Dempsey retorted.

At that point, she was scratching her head about the need for three votes to set the levy.

“I don’t understand why we’re voting on the same thing several times,” Dempsey said.

Finance Director Ken Thompson said the second vote was simply part of a state-established procedure that would become even more complicated on the third vote.

Apparently dissatisfied with Thompson’s explanation, Dempsey cast a lone vote against the second ordinance. Councilmen Robertson and Dick Denenny were absent.

The third vote, which the council is scheduled to take on Oct. 6, would declare a “substantial need” to collect the regular 1 percent increase that’s based on the city’s established tax base.

Such a declaration would override a state law limiting levy increases to the amount of inflation if that is less than a 1 percent increase. Inflation is measured by the “implicit price deflator” index.

Thompson said the issue has been moot in recent years because inflation has exceeded 1 percent. Next year, though, Thompson said, there is a chance of deflation – a drop in prices that could force the city to cut its levy.

The declaration of substantial need would be based on predicted decreases of $2.8 million in sales tax revenue, $388,000 in planning and building fees and $100,000 in gambling taxes.

Despite the anticipated revenue shortfall, the city’s tentative 2010 budget is balanced, Thompson said.

In other business Tuesday, the council unanimously passed a new burglar-alarm ordinance and authorized a private company to enforce it.

Burglar-alarm users will be required to register their systems and provide contact information. Registration of residential alarms will cost $25 a year while businesses will pay $35. Schools will get free registration, and users who have no false alarms in the previous year will get a discount.

Fines for false alarms will be $85 for residences and $165 for other buildings. Enforcement will be handled by the CryWolf division of Public Safety Corp. of Waldorf, Md.

Systems with more than three false alarms in a calendar year must be turned off for the remainder of the year or for 90 days, whichever is greater. However, first offenders may avoid the sanction by taking a class.

Also Tuesday, the council:

• Voted to delay implementation of the Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15 because of delays in publishing the final document.

• Adopted new procedures for the city hearing examiner. City Attorney Mike Connelly said there was no substantive change, but the new rules mesh better with the city’s planning regulations than do existing procedures that were borrowed from Spokane County.

• Confirmed Mayor Rich Munson’s appointment of Steven Lunden, a Gonzaga University maintenance manager, to the city’s Cable Advisory Board. The board advises the council on the city’s cable television franchise with Comcast Corp.