My mortgage payment recently went up $50 per month, so I called the King County Assessor’s Office to find out what was going on. They told me that my county and local taxes had both gone up. This is a $600/year increase that started in August.
Now I read that our mayor thinks it would be nice if the City Council would raise property taxes again in 2016 to help with the city’s anemic financial condition.
Council members, especially those who own businesses, told the mayor that a business and occupation (B&O) hike was totally off the table. So there seems to be agreement by our “representatives” that we Kent homeowners are going to continue to be the ATM of choice. Methinks we need some new representatives who don’t pander so egregiously to the Chamber of Commerce.
I also don’t understand the whole Regional Fire Authority setup. What was wrong with city-run fire-department services? Is the police department run the same way?
Not every person – or family – who lives in a home with a mortgage payment due every month has the discretionary income to support the city’s never-ending budget woes, especially those the council created.
The City Council and the mayor gave us property owners the financial white elephant known as the ShoWare Center – a vanity arena we didn’t need and couldn’t afford then or now.
And it’s sneaky business when the city tries to play games with the books and think that the auditors don’t know the difference between an asset and a liability.
If not for that vain-glorious foolishness that the council forced onto us, we wouldn’t have so many neglected streets and parks.
Still, council members go on about how great the ShoWare is for the city. It’s not good for the city. Maybe it’s good for businesses downtown. If so, then I think a B&O increase would be an appropriate, on-the-table item to help pay the city’s bills. Kind of like how LIDs are formed by the council to force neighborhood homeowners to pay for the streets in their area. If the ShoWare benefits business, let business pay for what the public doesn’t volunteer to pay via ticket sales.
– Sandra Gill
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