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For 30 years, annual property tax increases in Lake Forest Park have been 1% or less, while operating costs have risen significantly more. As a former city councilmember, planning commissioner, environmental quality commissioner and current tree board member, I know the lean margins on which LFP operates, especially our police department.
When public safety and police costs (911 dispatch, jail services, mental health crisis response, insurance, court costs) jumped a year ago by about $700,000, the city council was forced to balance the current budget by drawing heavily on savings.
Proposition 1, a property tax increase of about $220 per year for the average value home in LFP, will offset the deficit created by those public safety cost increases. All revenues from Prop 1 will go to public safety and police support as detailed on the city’s website. Prop 1 has a time limit of six years, after which our property tax rate will return to the current level.
The alternative to Prop 1, as some propose, is to continue drawing down the city’s savings, and worry about the deficit later when our savings run low – a convenient response but very short-sighted. Our savings are largely the result of COVID when federal funds were distributed to cities and spending was deferred, including all non-uniformed staff taking eight furlough days. Those were one-time revenues and savings that will not come again.
Our savings represent financial stability. They give us resilience to respond to crises that arise in the future, from economic downturn to natural and public health disasters. Our public safety deficit will only grow if not dealt with now, so that a future levy amount will be larger.
Prop 1 is a modest, temporary tax increase that will add less than 3% to our overall property tax bills. It will allow us to maintain current public safety services, without draining our savings. Let’s deal with our public safety deficit now by approving Prop 1.
Mark Phillips
Lake Forest Park
I dropped my ballot off on Friday with a No vote in it. Easiest decision on the ballot.
ReplyDeleteI suspect it will pass 65/35 like most property tax increases.
All such good points, Mark. Short-sightedness is a rampant problem in politics. But it’s a problem we citizens can overcome by thinking about how we want to live in our small gem of a city, and how we can make that happen, equitably and responsibly. I believe Prop 1 is a good way forward.
ReplyDeleteShort-sightedness? When has any form of levy not been overwhelmingly approved?
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