Council Mulls Position on Library-related Levy Rate

Last year's budget session involved sometimes over whether or not the Enumclaw City Council was obligated to roll back its city levy rate in order to cancel out the tax effect of the new King County Fire District No. 28 levy on city taxpayers.

In this April election, voters will be asked whether they want the city library to annex into KCLS. Moving into the library district means a new 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value increase to their property taxes.

To avoid that fire levy situation again, city administrator Mike Thomas asked council Monday if it wanted to take a position on whether or not they would roll back the city levy rate by that same amount for next year.

Thomas clarified that unlike the situation with the fire district in which the city's action of rolling back 89 cents per $1,000 assessed value didn't match the fire district's actual $1.09 per $1,000 assessed value levy, the library district is at a statutory maximum of 50 cents per $1,000.

"That's static," he said, whereas the city came up with the fire levy figure based on a blended rate of general fund money and one-time dollars.

Thomas told council that to roll back the city levy means taking it from $1.30 per $1,000 AV this year down to 79 cents per $1,000, and that represents a loss of $521,473 in general fund dollars.

"We would put ourselves back in a familiar hole," Thoms said. A roll back would mean more cuts, accelerating the gap between expenditures and revenue and relying heavily on sales tax, which is volatile, for general fund dollars.

Councilmen Kevin Mahelona, Jim Hogan and Sean Krebs indicated they did not support a roll back and advocated making an official position known to voters ahead of the election. This was not a formal council position, however, as the other members didn't speak about the issue and councilman Mike Ennis was absent.

Potential for Annexation Fail

Without a roll back, a vote for annexation means a property tax increase, that, according to The Courier-Herald, is an additional $125 in taxes for a home valued at $250,000.

In the event the vote failed and annexation doesn't occur, then, Thomas said the city still has a self-funded option but puts the library right back into competing for general fund dollars with services like public works and police.

The difference is that rather than doing a levy lid lift to generate the extra revenue, state law requires the city tackle its banked capacity first, which is in the amount of $1.1 million, he said.

This is money that the city could have levied but didn't -- it's the difference between what it actually levied and what its statutory levy limit is, said Thomas.

By law, council does not need to go to taxpayers to approve a tax increase if banked capacity were being used, but an advisory vote on the issue would be prudent. That vote would cost $25,000.

And to properly fund a library, it needs at least $500,000, he said.