Residents of Lake Forest Park can expect a 15 percent increase in surface water utility fees beginning in January 2009. A resolution approving the hike was approved 6-1 during the Nov. 20 Lake Forest Park City Council meeting.
The $15.35 increase per household is projected to raise an additional $82,800 that can be used to pay for inflationary cost increases of the city’s annual surface water program. The funds will primarily be used to continue work on a comprehensive surface water management plan to meet federal Non-Point Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES II) requirements, according to city finance director John Hawley.
While the figure still falls short of covering the cost of a $150,000 surface water management study, a smaller fee increase would likely lead to a larger future fee increases to replace culverts in the city’s creeks and streams, Hawley told council members.
“If you lower that to a five percent increase you’re making the decision to do a larger fee increase in the future to fund culverts,” Hawley said. “The thought is to keep the (surface water) funds moving and to implement the findings of the study.”
Councilman Donovan Tracy supported an amendment to change the fee increase to 5 percent. The motion failed 5-2.
“The issue I have with this is in the past it has been we don’t seem to get many capital projects done within the surface water budget,” Tracy said. “Until we get the surface water management plan completed and we have a capital program to go along with it and a rate study and funding plan…we ought not be continuing to raise the surface water utility fee.”
The council has considered a lesser increase in surface water fees in prior budget cycles, councilman Dwight Thompson said but the cost of replacing culverts makes asking for larger fees, inevitable.
“This is just a small amount of money,” Thompson said. “It is significant to the water quality of our creeks …This fund is significant to the environment of our city.”
The 2008 surface water rate fee in Lake Forest Park is $102.34 per parcel according to information from the King County Water and Land Resources Division. The city is listed in the middle of other comparable rates from cities in King County including Woodinville at a rate of $87.15 per parcel and Burien at $111 per parcel.
The resolution projects the 2009 rate will climb to $117.69 in Lake Forest Park. The rate will increase by almost $12 if a 10 percent increase of the surface water utility rate is approved as part of the 2010 budget.
Property Tax rises
The Lake Forest Park City Council also unanimously approved an ordinance to increase the annual property tax revenue by one percent at the Nov. 20 meeting. The allowable increase under state law is projected to be $27,028 causing the 2009 property tax to total $2,742,746.
A projected amount of new construction and refunds is a portion of the combined 1.5 percent increase over the 2008 property tax levy.
The council is scheduled to adopt the proposed 2009-2010 buget during the Dec. 11 council meeting.
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