Tag Archives: new taxes

Fiscal irresponsibility at Sammamish City Hall

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Commentary

Gerend 2

Mayor Don Gerend

As the Sammamish City Council heads into its retreat tomorrow evening, there is one topic that will get short shrift: the City’s finances.

In Monday’s Sammamish Comment post, I outlined the City’s own 2017-2018 budget that has a 73% decline in its cash balance from the end of 2016 to the end 0f 2018.

The budget has a 30-minute allocation on the retreat agenda. It’s not enough, and the City Council has been ducking the budget ramifications for the last two years.

The City faces being out of cash in 2019 at the current spend rate. (See Operations vs Capital Funds, below.) Action needs to be taken this year. It’s been put off yet again.

There is simply no other way to put it: the City Council and Administration have been irresponsible to not face up to the coming budget realities sooner.

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Schools should help pay for pool

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The Redmond City Council proposed to our City Council that they join and create a new taxing district to build a swimming pool. The details are in this Sammamish Review article.

Let’s see: new taxes for a park district. May Don Gerend wants to increase the Real Estate Excise Tax by one-quarter percent; and the City will likely need to impose a utility tax to either balance the budget in a few years or pay for its contribution to the Town Center infrastructure.

Here’s an idea: why not have the Lake Washington and Issaquah School districts and the Eastside Catholic High School contribute to the capital costs and on-going maintenance of a pool? Their students need an Olympic size pool for swim team competition. They now have to rent facilities outside the city and drive to get there.

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