Years of cuts prompt Redmond tax vote

Redmond leaders say taxpayers must chip in more money if they want smooth streets, police officers available to respond to burglar alarms, new parks and extended hours at gathering spots such as the Old Fire House and the senior center.

Next month they're asking voters to approve raising the city's property tax by more than 50 percent as part of a package of other tax and fee increases that officials say would enable Redmond to achieve more of its goals.

Proposition 1 on the May 16 ballot would raise Redmond's property tax levy by 65 cents, from $1.23 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to $1.88, beginning in 2007 — a $228 annual increase on a $350,000 home, according to the city.

The City Council and Mayor Rosemarie Ives are pushing the tax proposal after two years of studying Redmond's wants and needs and how to fund them. After years of cuts, the growing city's budget has no place left to trim, they say.

But opponents, including former City Councilman Richard Grubb, call the increase excessive. They say the city used biased language in the voter's guide to describe the measure and fear the city won't follow through on pledges to boost public-safety funding.

Redmond relies on property taxes to provide basic services such as police, fire protection, parks and street maintenance. Over the last decade, city leaders say revenues have not kept up with population growth, rising inflation and increasing service demands.

The council raised the property tax by 1 percent this year and last, and boosted utility taxes and business-license fees this year as well.

City leaders in recent years also left vacant jobs unfilled to save money and tapped Redmond's reserves to balance the budget.

Last year the council resisted putting the mayor's proposed 70 percent property tax increase on the November ballot, opting to wait until a two-year financial study was complete to pitch a tax increase to voters.

"The council for the last several years found ways to fund the city operations. But when you run out of ways, you're going to have to raise the money to do it," said Tom Paine, a former city councilman who now heads the pro-tax-increase group Committee to Preserve Redmond.

Earlier this year the council voted to raise the city's utility tax, and it plans to periodically increase the business tax as part of the new, six-year financial strategy that also includes the property-tax-increase proposal.

If voters approve the increase, the trio of changes would raise an estimated $7.2 million in 2007. In 2011, that annual amount would grow to nearly $11 million as the business tax goes up.

Among the services and operations the money would pay for:

• Nine full-time employees at Fire Station 12 in the Overlake area in 2007 and nine additional employees at Fire Station 17 in north Redmond in 2009, to improve response times;

• Nine new positions in the Police Department (officers and support staff) in 2007, with nine additional jobs in 2009;

• Extending the hours of operation for the Old Fire House, the senior center and the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center;

• Park maintenance projects that have been deferred;

• Replacing outdated city equipment such as computer systems.

Earlier this month, the group Financial Accountability in Redmond appealed the ballot title and explanatory statement that the city submitted for the voters guide.

The group said the statement was slanted in favor of the measure, telling voters budget cutbacks would result without the increase.

Last week a King County Superior Court judge made a minor change to the wording but otherwise retained the title and explanation.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com