Bond must be based on what we can afford
Email | Print Jack Darnton | Anacortes American
March 13, 2008 - 05:00 PM

So! What happened to the school bond? It took a real beating. Why was that? Why was the survey so wrong? Well, here’s my theory.

First, responses to a survey don’t constitute an iron-clad promise. I suspect at least some of those surveyed (and I wasn’t one) simply said they supported the bond thinking that’s what the caller wanted to hear.

But the thing I believe changed some minds and had a real negative impact on support was the arrival of those little post cards from the Assessor’s Office telling most, if not all, of us that our property assessments had just been increased by huge amounts.

I doubt that many people really understand what assessed value has to do with taxes. Most just assume that when assessments go up, taxes are gonna go up too. Sorry! That’s not always true. My assessment went up big-time for 2008 but my tax bill actually went down a few bucks. Same for several other properties I checked on randomly.

You see, if everyone’s assessments go up by about the same percentage, your taxes will stay almost constant unless there’s been a new levy or bond added to the list of stuff our taxes pay for. If not, there’s a good chance taxes will go down if new homes and buildings have been constructed. Each year their value is added to the total assessed value of all property in a taxing district.

And because this new property has to shoulder its share of the tax burden, it takes over part of your burden which means your taxes may go down. Maybe the anti-growth faction should give that some thought.

But, if there have been new bonds or levies added to the list of stuff we pay for, your taxes are likely to go up. So, when we voted for a new library, we were voting to pay for it with higher taxes. Same thing with the Island Hospital improvements. And if the school bond had passed, we all would have seen a pretty significant increase in our taxes next year. And don’t forget that bonds usually take 20 years to be paid off.

My observation is that governments have a tendency to want Cadillacs rather than Chevys. I watched this play out as Anacortes designed and built its new fire stations several years ago. Later came our new police building and library which were prime examples of what I’m talking about. They could have been done more economically and perhaps not so spacious.

But times were good, the economy was strong, and we were able to put the financing together without having to ask the taxpayers to vote for new taxes except for the library. We put the library bond issue on the ballot and the voters enthusiastically supported it.

But lately, things have changed. Over a year ago, it became fairly obvious that our economy was in trouble. It was probably more apparent to those with household incomes under $75,000, but there were indicators all over the place if one cared to notice. Some did and they began to be more and more cautious how they spent their money.

In a column about a year ago, I used real numbers to show that people on lower and fixed incomes were likely going to experience a negative cash flow if the school bond passed.

By that, I meant that the bond alone would cost some of them more than their incomes would likely increase in a year. Add to that the rising prices for food, gasoline, utilities, and darn near everything else and it was obvious fixed income people were going to get hit and hit hard. So were lots of other people living paycheck to paycheck whether they owned a home or rented.

So all those things came together in a “perfect storm” scenario and doomed the school bond.

Where do we go from here? Let me make a suggestion. Ask the people how much they’re willing to pay. How? I don’t know. Figure something out. Take a survey. Send letters home with kids. Write a column.

All I know for sure is that in all the comments I’ve read and heard before and after the vote, not one single person said, “to hell with kids and schools."

I’m pretty sure all of us want good schools and good programs for the kids whether or not we have kids of our own in the system. And I think all of us are willing to pay something toward making that a reality. We just want to be asked what we can afford instead of being told how much to pony up.

Columnist Terry Christiansen, a former Anacortes City Council member, welcomes comments and suggestions. Contact him at .


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