Regarding The Herald article, “Snohomish to vote on tax plan for parks” by Amy Nile, and the letter “District creates stable funding”: The letter writer states the proposed metropolitan park taxing district rate can never exceed 75 cents per $1,000 assessed value, which is not what The Herald reported. The letter writer is confused about how the tax rate is determined; The Herald reporter got it right. Her example shows with “banked capacity,” a rate can exceed 75 cents per $1,000 assessed value. (A city councilman recently called “banked capacity a ticking time bomb.”) I refer the letter writer and parks board members to the levy comptroller in the Snohomish County Assessor’s office to check these facts.
I might add that the city in 2014 commissioned a professional survey of 172 residents and found 69 percent of them said the condition of city parks is good or excellent; but only 36 percent of them agreed the city was fiscally responsible for spending tax dollars.
The city right now has over $1 million in reserve for a “rainy day,” plus more than $600,000 available in “banked capacity” should we ever again have a 2008 or 1929 Wall Street banking scandal and crash.
We love our parks but creating an extra layer of bureaucracy is not justified.
Morgan Davis
Snohomish
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