Council raises property taxes 3 percent

    The Washington City Council approved its budget Wednesday night. The budget contains a city property tax increase of 3.45 percent. The property tax rate is now $14.48 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, and will rise to $14.98 next fiscal year. This means that the owner of a $100,000 house who paid about $609 in city property tax will now pay about $630.

    The newly approved budget contains a few changes from the proposed budget the council considered a few weeks ago. For instance, the council decided not to purchase a $165,000 street sweeper or a $32,000 pickup truck, as requested by the maintenance and construction department.

    City Administrator David Plyman said the city will use its current street sweeper as long as it can. In light of the fact that the city will not purchase a new street sweeper or new pickup, the council budgeted $15,000 more for equipment maintenance.

    The council also decided to approve a 2 percent wage increase for library employees instead of the 4 percent requested. The city will only have one cleanup day instead of two next fiscal year, and it will be in the spring.

    The issue that preoccupied the council was, for the second straight meeting, the engineering department.

    Councilor Fred Stark said that he spoke to city staff in other towns of Washington?s size that do not have a city engineer. He said that those other towns are not undertaking a multi-million dollar sewer project. He said the city will need to keep its city engineer for that project. Stark said eliminating the engineer position would not save money in the near future, but may save money over the long haul. 

    ?If it?s to be a cost-cutting item, it won?t be a cost-cutting item next year,? said Stark. ?It may cut costs down the road. Once we get past this mammoth project, we can decide whether to cut this position.?

    Councilor Bob Shepherd said the city must budget for a city engineer next year.

    ?What we?ve been discussing is something we need to address in a different manner,? said Shepherd. ?If we farm it out, we still have to budget the expense of engineering.?

    Councilor Mike Roth said he agreed with Shepherd that the council needs to keep ?engineering? in the budget, and that the issue was whether to keep the city engineer?s position. He said eliminating the position would save money.

    Mayor Sandra Johnson asked Roth, ?Would you care to offer a road map as to how the council would come to a conclusion on the matter? I am not going to accept a motion this evening regarding this matter. I don?t think we have fleshed this out.?

    Councilor Merlin Hagie asked Johnson how she would like to proceed.

    Johnson said the council ought to have a discussion with the very department some councilors want to eliminate. Hagie said he did not propose to eliminate the department.

    ?There is no effort to eliminate the department per se,? said Hagie.

For more, see our March 10 print edition.