City of Snohomish affordable housing incentives a stealth tax

Snohomish County Public Works finally has secured a signed purchase and sale agreement with a developer for its former public works yard between Bonneville Avenue and Avenue D in Snohomish’s Midtown District.

A year ago, the Snohomish City Council wisely rejected property tax breaks for developers in the Midtown District. (Only council members Guzak, Kuleta, and Neals voted to approve the developer tax breaks.)

Now, new developer tax breaks called “incentives” are being recommended again by the city Planning Commission under the guise of “affordable housing” based on federal Housing and Urban Development guidelines. (HUD defines an individual earning less than $100,000 a year as low-income and eligible for the small percentage, 10% of so-called “affordable housing” units the developer sets aside to get all the incentives.)

Developer financial incentives include permit fee reductions, park impact fees, traffic impact fees, and water and sewer hookup fees. Guess who has to make up this loss of revenue from all these developer incentives? Every current city property owner and renter. In other words, like the developer tax breaks, this is just another stealth tax on all city residents in order to entice and enrich developers.

The City Council is expected to vote on this dubious Planning Commission wealth transfer proposal by the end of November.

Morgan Davis

Snohomish