Snohomish City Council shouldn’t give developers tax breaks

Published 1:30 am Monday, February 28, 2022

Snohomish city government is awash with money from local, state and federal taxpayers. It hands over money left and right to its managers and for dubious projects, freely giving favors and tax breaks to private developers, but neglecting its neediest residents who deserve the most help.

For example, the city council recently approved $20,000 annual pay and benefits increases for each of its city clerk and economic development/weddings operations managers.

The council on Feb. 1 gave private, for-profit developers what they wanted; allowing five-story multi-family high-rises in the historic, mid-20th century heart of the city between Sixth Street and 15th Street along Avenue D and Bonneville Avenue.

Next on the council’s agenda: giving property tax exemptions to private multi-family developers in the newly created Midtown District zone. As if raising the city’s building height limit from three-stories to five-stories wasn’t enough incentive for developers, it is considering property tax exemptions for developers like Craig Skotdal who is on record for wanting the exemption so he can redevelop his Snohomish Square property (which now includes the one-story Haggens grocery store) into market-rate, 5-story, multi-family apartments or condos.

Giving property tax breaks to low-income but property-rich seniors is one thing. But allowing huge property tax exemptions for high-income and high-net worth developers at the expense of all of us non-exempt taxpayers is simply un-American. Why should hard-working homeowners and renters subsidize for-profit developers with corporate welfare?

The city council should reverse itself and scrap the tax breaks scheme for developers.

“Trickle down” economics has been shown to be a failure in trying to reduce inequality in America.

Morgan Davis

Snohomish