Merging
City is better off as own entity with own identity
I am writing to and for the people in the town I grew up in. I am writing first and foremost, not as a resident of Washington State or Snohomish County or as President of the Edmonds City Council, but simply as a citizen of the City of Edmonds. As I sit at my computer to begin, I feel somewhat like a mosquito at a nudist colony – with so much potential material I am not sure where to start!
Let me first start by stating that the situation to be addressed is not at all new. The problem has existed over the years: how to pay for city services. Over the years some ideas have been proposed such as emergency medic transport fees and B &O taxes.
However, now comes the grimmest idea of them all. Recently, folks may have read that in order to be efficient, the City of Edmonds should merge into the City of Lynnwood. Let me repeat it just in case you cannot believe what you just read. Some have stated that the City of Edmonds – the Gem of the Puget Sound, the “friendliest” Town on the Sound, the place where you don’t get “malled,” where you can have an “Edmonds Kind of Day” – should be merged into Lynnwood! To quote from one letter writer, we need to do this because, “businesses merge to gain efficiencies.” It is being called consolidation – I call it oppression. Lynnwood would swallow up Edmonds like the New York Yankees do free agents.
This business model for the Edmonds giveaway plan is apparently based upon the cold calculations of the corporate boardroom. No doubt using calculators, indicators, efficiencies, data-points, co-efficiencies and boardroom number crunchers to determine Edmonds should be given away to Lynnwood for some false, so-called efficiencies.
But this kind of efficiency makes as much sense as having King County putting their Brightwater sewage plant in South Edmonds…of course this idea was also in the name of efficiencies.
Cold calculations do not satisfy the human spirit. For who among us would actually calculate giving away our beaches to Lynnwood. Who among us can measure the cost of giving away our parks to Lynnwood. How do you estimate giving away our views to Lynnwood! How do you reconcile giving our downtown away to the power of the Alderwood Mall! What accounting ledger would dare state some false efficiency gained as a balanced account against losing the spirit, charm and character of Edmonds. I didn’t lead the effort to create the Edmonds Historic Preservation Commission just to turn it all over to Lynnwood.
I am confident that the people of Edmonds want no part of giving our town over to Lynnwood. I believe that the good people of Edmonds are going to work with bold determination to preserve and protect Edmonds for Edmonds. I state this with the full knowledge and confidence that I’m speaking for the vast majority of Edmonds citizens.
MICHAEL PLUNKETT
Edmonds City Council
City taxes
Lack of understanding the real problem
I am writing to follow up on a letter I previously wrote regarding property taxes appearing in the Nov. 19 issue of the Enterprise. Dan Clement, Edmonds finance director, and Mayor Gary Haakenson were kind enough to follow up and point out the error in my critique of property tax calculation. I must say, I’m so full of crow, I hardly had any room for turkey at Thanksgiving!
Contrary to my critique, I have learned that the only times an increased property value can increase your property taxes is when your property appreciates above the average rate for property in Edmonds (not necessarily a bad thing) or when you make improvements to your house.
I was indeed able to verify that this is the case based on statistics from the state Department of Revenue and the Edmonds 2004 budget, provided on their respective web sites.
In the process, though, I realized that Washington state, county, and city governments could do a better job of explaining and presenting property tax information to citizens. Verifying the property tax calculation is an exercise in frustration, requiring you to wade through reams of cryptically labeled numbers. It is also difficult to determine what is “voter approved” and what is not, even though my 2004 property tax bill says that 40 percent is voter approved.
In many ways, this is the real crux of the matter. When voters are frustrated with taxes they don’t understand or feel are unfair, they respond by passing blunt-instrument initiatives like 747 and 695 ($30 car tabs). This in turn makes it more difficult for government to provide services much in need in the state, such as better education and transportation.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated citizenry.” Consider me first in line for that education.
BRETT GASPERS
Edmonds
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