||| FROM DAVID ZERETZKE |||
Please vote ‘Yes’ for the Road Levy – Proposition 1. The San Juan County road fund lacks sufficient funding to repair critical infrastructure in San Juan County. Your ‘Yes’ vote will address:
1) over a dozen marine facilities,
2) hundreds of culverts under roads or in side ditches, and
3) safer road shoulders along busy arterials.
The infrastructure of roads and marine facilities depends on sound management for a healthy economy, for our safety and for our quality of life. Sound management demands longterm planning with stable funding to repair all structures efficiently. The 1% annual increase to the road levy allowed by state law can no longer keep up. It takes a sensible plan looking decades ahead to make the best use of tax dollars to maintain this vital infrastructure. A “Yes’ vote will allow that.
Costs are higher today, the use of roads is greater with different vehicles and electric bicycles and pedestrians. More severe weather damages roads and marine facilities which forces emergency repairs, the most expensive repairs. Hundreds of old undersized or broken culverts are a good example of the challenge facing SJ County. There is no ‘quick fix’ for such a costly challenge – only a sound maintenance plan can avoid more road washouts or damage to intersecting driveways.
Let’s not end up like the ferry system which has failed to address an aging fleet with the unnecessary repairs and delays that hurt us and the local economy. Vote “Yes” for the Road Levy.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
For those of you who are worried about property taxes going through the roof with the recently increased property assessments, remember that your property tax can only increase 1% per year. So even though your property assessment has increased, your tax rate will go down so that your overall amount goes up no more than 1%. The county will not be receiving a windfall from the increase in assessments, therefore the roads levy increase is necessary if we want to see our roads improved.
Not true. If your property increases in value relative to other properties in the same taxing district, your increase will reflect that change in valuation.
See https://dor.wa.gov/forms-publications/publications-subject/tax-topics/property-tax-how-one-percent-property-tax-levy-limit-works.
BEFORE YOU VOTE, EXAMINE THE WAYS THAT THIS MONEYI WILLBE USED. I HAVE looked over the projects with care, especially because I thought I would see unnecessary sprucing up of Eastsound proper. There doesn’t appear to be anything other than repairs and improvement. (Even my husband is reconsidering his negative vote.)
One question that hasn’t been asked is what will their budget be if the levy doesn’t pass, and what will they still be able to do with it? It seems they accomplished quite a lot with last year’s budget. I’ve also heard that a considerable sum has been earmarked for a county building, which, if true, I didn’t know was part of their mandate.
The roads levy is a based SOLELY on parcel assessment value … currently 54 cents per $1000 assessed value. If your assessed value increases by say 69% (I’m using my parcel as an example), the tax for roads will be 69% higher. That is before the new levy increase.
If the roads levy is approved by voters, the levy amount would increase to $1 per $1000 assessed value … yet another 44% increase.
Again using my parcel as an example, my 2022 county road tax was $369.10. Based on my new assessment, the road tax will increase to $624.51. If the new road levy is passed, it will increase to $1,124.69.
And of course this will continue virtually forever since it’s a permanent levy lid lift.
LEVIES that are based on assessed values have absolutely nothing to do with the 1% plus new construction governments can collect as their annual standard tax increase.
Bottom line is your property taxes are going to increase substantially whether the road levy is approved or not.
“You propert tax can only increase 1% a year” is a very misleading comment.
Scott is right about “relative” increases.
Also—Junior taxing districts ARE allowed only a 1% increase in the total $$ they get (plus new construction) unless levy’s are approved.
That does NOT mean your overall taxes cannot be up more than 1%!
Until there is rational prioritization of improvement projects and efforts toward greater efficiency from the county road department, I do not support handing them more tax money. When the road department has a fleet of shiny new trucks to ride around in and is doing work that has historically been done more efficiently and effectively by contractors, I don’t think they need more money, they need more oversight. Where are our elected representatives?
There is another troubling issue underlying the new assessments and proposed levy increaser.
SJC is not Levittown. We have a diversity of neighborhoods and the assessment criteria are not consistent. This past year, estate beneficiaries of a beloved neighbor priced their parent’s house at 80% over assessed value. They found an out-of-state buyer who paid cash and has not yet occupied the residence. The result is that our small community of retirees on fixed incomes who would like to live here during their last years have received notices of valuation increases approaching 50%. Consider that this occurred in an economic environment of government-created inflation.
If you are looking for facts, like what County Roads funds can pay for and what projects are on the table, here are useful links:
This one answers frequently asked questions like “what will this cost me?”:
https://www.sanjuanco.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1259
This link includes an interactive map so you can see the projects the levy would pay for:
https://www.sanjuanco.com/1918/Roads-Levy-2022
If you’re inclined to vote in favor of Proposition 1, the Road Levy, thinking that “your property tax can only increase 1% per year,” you should read Robert Dashiell’s illuminating comment: “The roads levy is a based SOLELY on parcel assessment value.” This means that not even taking the recent huge increase we’ve witnessed in assessments, Proposition 1 will increase your road levy by 78.5%. (Yes, that’s what an increase from $.56 to $1.00 per $1000 in assessed value comes to when expressed as a percentage increase.) If, like me, your assessed value has gone up by 36% (I guess I got off easy compared to lots of other folks), your road levy will increase by a whopping 143%. So much for the idea that your property tax increase will be limited to 1%. The amount of money collected by the road levy will increase massively even if the levy remains at $.56 per $1000 in assessed value. There is no reason for any additional increase beyond that.
Just glancing at the map,I notice that Orcas Island would get the bulk of the improvement projects. I especially like the widening of the shoulders along Orcas Road, making bicycle access from the ferry to Eastsound much better and less dangerous.
Cindy
I would hope someone from the county would respond to the questions raised in these comments and the 17 comments from the October 9th Orcasonian Levy Lift article from San Juan County Communications.
What you have provided is the same information presented in that article and this article which does not give a true picture of the total new costs county property taxpayers will be liable. For example, where does the added revenue from the latest substantial increase in property assessment fit in? Is there other funding (lodging tax etc.) that can be used?
There are dozens of what I consider excellent comments and questions that have been presented and deserve answers.
Bike lanes are a good thing. But not at any cost.
The road between Orcas landing and Deer Harbor Road has 3 major uphill grades to circumvent Scott Hill. I’t’s tough on a bike. The only cyclists I see trying to do this are tourists.
So how many $ will SJC spend to carve out bike lanes for outfits like BackRoads?
Please vote NO. More waste to make us even more tourist friendly. We have enough tourism. This will benefit bicycle tourism, whale watching tourism and inconvenience locals at every turn.
After the Mt. Baker Raceway project, the Swan Road “S-Turn” project, and finally the “Prune Alley Project”, – one block from “Covid Corner”, there is no way I will vote to upgrade tourist access to the Island at local expense.
It appears Dave no longer lives in this county:
“Dave and his wife Mary Ann will soon be moving to a house in North Bellingham to be closer to his parents..”
https://www.islandssounder.com/news/council-honors-dave-zeretzke/ (2008)
John, the date on that article is April 3, 2008. Kinda out of date wouldn’t you say?