Collins Building levy pulled from ballot

EVERETT — Voters won’t decide the fate of the historic Collins Building after all, due to an about-face from Port of Everett commissioners.

The three commissioners voted two to one Tuesday morning to pull a $15 million tax levy from the November ballot, saying public perception seemed to go against the measure. If approved, the levy would have used property tax revenue to restore and renovate the 75-year-old former casket factory that has long been a thorn in the port’s side.

The port-owned Collins Building is slated for deconstruction, but the process has been delayed by legal action from activists.

Commissioners Phil Bannon and Michael Hoffman voted in favor of withdrawing the proposed tax levy Tuesday. Commissioner Duane Pearson voted to keep the levy on the ballot.

Later Tuesday, port staffers were preparing paperwork to formally withdraw the measure – just a few weeks after commissioners unanimously approved placing the levy on the ballot. Commissioners solicited public opinion on the levy over the last few weeks, and determined that public sentiment wasn’t supportive enough of the measure.

“Since introducing the tax levy, I have heard from some community members that the levy is inappropriate – with the historical community, ironically, being one of the most vocal opponents,” Bannon wrote in a letter soliciting public opinion last month.

Even staunch advocates of the Collin’s Building’s restoration said the levy wouldn’t go far enough toward saving the structure. Historic Everett activist Valerie Steel wrote in a letter to Bannon that the levy was poorly timed in light of the nation’s recession, and that the $15 million measure wouldn’t guarantee the building’s survival if costs were still deemed too high.

“People are not naive,” she wrote in her letter. “Electeds, agency personnel and citizens from Olympia to Seattle to Bellingham are asking, ‘What is the Port of Everett doing?’ This levy is making our port look foolish.”