by John Ley
Updated: 10/24/2019
(10/8/2019: CAMAS, WA.)
The City of Camas decided to scrap its old pool rather than spend $1-2 million to fix it. They are now proposing a very “nice” facility near Lacamas Lake. The new pool & rec center our city council is proposing will allegedly cost around $72-$78 million.
The city council is asking citizens to approve a property tax levy of $1.04 per thousand of your property valuation. That is an additional $416 on a $400,000, $832 on an $800,000 home, etc.
What are we already paying in tax rates by comparison? From my 2018 property tax statement.
VOTED Levy and Taxes
City of Camas $0.4954
SD117 Camas School $6.7051
TOTAL Voted $7.2005
Non-VOTED Levy
City of Camas $2.8900
Clark County $1.1089
Conservation Futures $0.0431
Port Camas/Washougal $0.3474
State Schools $1.8755
State Schools – part 2 $1.0187
Total Non-Voted $7.2839
TOTAL voted & non-voted $14.4844
Think of all the services we get from the city. Police and fire departments and EMS for our public safety. They maintain our roads and parks. We have a public library, plus water and sewer systems. The pool proposal would have citizens paying almost one third (30%) the price of all the city services, just to build a new pool – ($1.04 vs. $3.385).
Consider the services we get from the county. We get the Sheriff for public safety and our county judges and jail. They maintain rural roads and parks, and provide a host of other services. The city council wants us to spend over 93% of what we pay for Clark County services, on a pool – ($1.04 vs. $1.1089).
The Port of Camas/Washougal helps attract businesses and jobs to our area. They maintain the marina and the airport (Grove Field). The city council wants us to pay three times our Port taxes, for a pool – ($1.04 vs. $0.347).
And remember, this doesn’t include the $850,000 annual operating loss projected by the City. They’ll have to come up with another tax to pay for that.
One more very important issue for citizens to consider- Roughly half of our taxes are “voted” and half are “not voted”. There is a HUGE, very important difference.
The “voted” taxes can increase or decrease based upon the assessed value of your home. They can go up without limit. The “non voted” taxes are adjusted yearly, but the “total dollars” collected are limited by the state legislature, so that (generally speaking) the total dollars collected by the city or county only go up by 1% a year. (Complicated explanation omitted.)
The pool tax will be a “voted” tax. This means as your property increases in value, so will that portion of your taxes. If your home appreciates in value just 4% per year, what would your annual tax increase be? How much would the total cost of the pool bond be to you over the 20-year life of the $78 million bond? See below.
The current owner of a $400,000 home could end up paying $13,292 for a community pool they don’t own and can’t use unless they pay an additional $800 per year for an annual Membership.
Camas citizens have a very important and costly decision to make this November. Is borrowing $78 million for 20 years, and signing up for an eternity of million dollar operating losses, a responsible use of our money?
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