City of Snohomish’s failed housing tax break wasn’t ‘progressive’

Published 1:30 am Friday, September 30, 2022

Regarding the recent Herald article, “Snohomish Council rejects tax break on housing for low-income families,” The Herald, Sept. 21:

I’d like to comment on the remarks made by Snohomish’s ex-mayors, John Kartak and Karen Guzak. In 2019, Kartak and Guzak, along with then-council members Tom Merrill, Linda Redmon, Dana, Larry Countryman, Lynn Schilaty and Jason Sanders, all supported the creation of the multi-family tax exemption ordinance, targeting the Pilchuck District, at the behest of a financially struggling small developer. Now Kartak, a hard-right and arch-social conservative, is jumping on the bandwagon of anti-developer, anti-corporate welfare progressives. In a complete 180 reversal, Kartak argues “The MFTE isn’t about anything but a redistribution of wealth (from the poor and middle class to wealthy developers). The MFTE is not about affordable housing.”

Council member Guzak has bragged about her personal real estate developments that utilized developer tax breaks. She is a former business associate of a longtime Snohomish developer, Bob Hart, and to this day, is staunch “pro-developer.” Guzak is not a real progressive leader who would look out for the poor and middle-class. Her continuing fight to implement the developer tax break so local real estate mogul Craig Skotdal can redevelop his 10-acre Snohomish Square into five-story mid-rise condos and apartment complexes, is not “progressive.” Making the low-income folks across the street from Snohomish Square in the Snohomish Mobile Home and RV Park pay more in their monthly rental space cost so that Skotdal gets millions of dollars annually in tax breaks, is not “progressive.”

Next year’s election for three city council openings will be interesting.

Morgan Davis

Snohomish