A Tuesday night’s meeting at City Hall, the Sammamish City Council unanimously voted to maintain the property tax amount for each household in 2010 at the same level as 2009.
Councilmembers Jack Barry and Nancy Whitten were absent from the meeting.
Conscious of not increasing the tax burden of residents in these tough economic times while maintaining consistent levels of city revenue, Financial Director Lyman Howard told the councilors that an increase in the property tax levy rate itself was necessary to maintain an overall 0 percent increase.
“The levy rate would go up but the actual levy payment will remain the same,” he said.
That’s because of a 15 percent drop in the total assessed valuation of property in the city, from $9.8 billion in 2009 to $8.4 billion in 2010.
The levy rate is assessed as a proportion of assessed value. In 2010 that rate is estimated to be $2.42 per $1,000, up from $2.034 in 2009.
The average household’s total commitment will be about $1,220, the same amount as this year.
The council also voted unanimously to approve a “declaration of substantial need” to override the levy limit of 100 percent of the previous year’s amount plus inflation as measured by the Implicit Price Deflator (IPD).
Due to the rare event of the IPD being a negative figure, the city would have been forced to collect almost 1 percent less revenue than in 2009.
In the summary statement of Tuesday night’s agenda bill on the matter it was written “At the City Council’s discretion, they may determine that, due to adverse economic conditions at the federal, state and local levels, that there is a substantial need to set the levy limit factor at one hundred one percent. The attached resolution is a draft declaration of that finding of substantial need and also includes a provision stating the intention to bank the levy capacity above 100 percent and up to a 101 percent limit.”
“A substantial need resolution is something the council hasn’t seen in the past,” Howard said. “In order to hold revenue steady, it is something that will have to pass.”
There were further budget deliberations at the meeting, with the council again voting unanimously to approve Howard’s budget updates for 2010.
The most notable of these changes is that the city will delay for 6 months the hiring of a an extra police detective as requested by Sammamish Chief of Police Nate Elledge. This will save the city $75,000 in 2010, based on an annual salary for the position of $125,000.
The saving was necessary partly to pay for a $200,000 fall in property tax revenue, caused by a contraction in new construction.
The council also decided to override the city employees agreement to accept a pay decrease of .4 percent, in line with a decrease in the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
The council decided instead to not decrease employee salaries but hold them at 0 percent, which will cost the city an additional $28,900.
