The Medical Lake City Council took its first official public steps on the budget process road by holding a public hearing and setting its property tax and emergency medical services tax rates for 2016.
During a public hearing at its Nov. 3 meeting, the council heard a staff report indicating the additional amount the city could collect if it elected to raise property taxes by 1 percent as per state law would be $5,303.62. That would bring the total property taxes collected by Medical Lake in 2016 for its current expense account to $535,665.83.
City staff recommended the council adopt the resolution increasing the property tax collections by 1 percent, along with increasing the EMS levy rate by 1 percent as well. The EMS rate, however, is set at 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, and there is a maximum amount the city can collect. If the 1 percent exceeds the statutory amount, Spokane County will collect the lesser of the two.
The anticipated amount Medical Lake will collect for its EMS levy in 2016 is $117,336.53.
Even though the council approved the 1 percent increase in property tax rates, it doesn’t necessarily mean residential property owners in the city will see their property tax payments increase. Medical Lake’s total valuation is scheduled to go up over $6.57 million in 2016 to just above $238.92 million.
Because of the state’s taxing structure, the owner of property whose assessed valuation is $100,000 might see their property tax drop from 2015’s $228.26 per month to $221.98 without the 1 percent increase, and just $224.28 with the 1 percent. The owner of property assessed at $150,000, whose tax in 2015 was $342.39 would see their 2016 payment drop to $332.97 without the 1 percent, and $336.42 with the increase.
“We have a very complicated tax structure in Washington state,” City Administrator Doug Ross said.
The council could elect to increase the property tax increase to 6 percent per assessed value, but that move would require a public vote. Public approval would allow the city to increase its annual property tax levy by its “banked” amount.
Finance Director Jennifer Hough said this amount was about $38,000 and wouldn’t make much of a difference to the annual budget.
The council approved both 1 percent rate increases. They also set the regular council meetings on Nov. 17 and Dec. 1 as the dates for preliminary and final budget public hearings.
Council approved a resolution declaring Ferguson Enterprises as a sole source vendor for the city’s water meters, remote meters and billing system for 2016 and 2017. According to a letter from the meter and billing system’s manufacturer, Sensus, Ferguson is the only authorized distributor of its products in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.
Medical Lake is in the process of upgrading all its water meters to radio-read meters, and is using Sensus in the upgrade. Passage of the resolution declaring Ferguson a sole source vendor is required by state law that allows the city to bypass the bidding process during its upgrade.
Council also passed a resolution creating an addendum to its agreement with the city of Cheney for the provision of municipal court services and facilities. Cheney is currently providing those services to Medical Lake.
The addendum requires Medical Lake to make code enforcement officer and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office commissioned reserve deputy Don Mayfield available to provide security services at the court, with Cheney responsible for the accompanying wages and benefits.
Mayfield has previously been volunteering his time during court sessions.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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