After I quoted Councilwoman Mary Kay Voss on financing a senior center three weeks ago, I got two notes questioning her statement that paying off city-backed bonds would cost less than a tax for a park district-run center.
Voss had told me that city-backed bonds could be paid off with a 3 cent per $1,000 property tax, while a park district tax could be 75 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation.
Reader Dennis Teschlog questioned the logic of saying citizens would pay 25 times more with a wider tax base.
Former Councilwoman and Mayor Pam Pruitt, a supporter of the park district plan, questioned how much city-backed bonds would cost over a 20-year payoff period.
Voss responds that the lower figure is based on building a $1-2 million building on Community Association-owned land, a building that the Senior Foundation would maintain. The higher figure is based on building and maintaining a building at McCollum Park that would cost $6-8 million plus up to $100,000 in environmental impact and mitigation costs.
She adds that the 20-year payoff on bonds would be $1.44 million for a $1 million project, $2.88 million for a $2 million project.
Two referenda, two tough sells
Two groups will seek your signatures on referenda over the next few weeks. Both referenda will have a hard time qualifying for the November ballot.
Referendum 70 is an attempt to repeal the national-popular-vote law. R-71 seeks to overturn the everything-but-marriage additions to the state domestic-partnership law.
Both laws would take effect July 25 unless referendum sponsors can gather 120,577 valid signatures to suspend either, pending a public vote in November.
Referenda to overturn legislation are much more rare than initiatives.
Since Washington’s first initiatives and referenda were filed in 1913, we’ve had 1,050 numbered initiatives to the people, but only 71 numbered referendum measures.
Sponsors of both referenda face uphill battles. Referendum petitions are confusing because they look as though a signer is in favor of the measure.
R-71 divides gay marriage opponents
Not all of the usual opponents of same-sex unions support Referendum 71.
Pastor Joe Futen of the Cedar Park Church in Bothell opposed filing the referendum. He told R-71 sponsors that he thinks the referendum would lose in November, making opposition to a future gay-marriage proposal more difficult.
Groups that were unable to get enough signatures for a referendum against a civil rights law three years ago will have a harder time this year. Not only are they no longer united, but also the required number of signatures is higher.
Evan Smith can be reached at entopinion@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
