SNOHOMISH — The City Council is being asked to approve a 1% property tax increase this year.
A public hearing will be Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. in the Carnegie Building, 105 Cedar Ave.
Although average Snohomish home prices have tripled since 2014, when the market was emerging out of the 2008 Recession, the city tax rate is falling. The city tax rate for 2023 would be 53 cents per $1,000 in assessed value. In 2014, the tax rate was $1.04 per $1,000.
If council passes the 1% increase, the average homeowner would see a net $3.08 increase for the city tax portion in the bill.
In a Snohomish homeonwer’s property tax bill, the city’s portion is 6.1% of the bill. The biggest percentage goes to K-12 schools.
In Snohomish, the amount brought in by property taxes still pales to sales taxes. But leaning on sales taxes frightens the finance director, he said: If the economy shrinks in a recession, it constricts cashflow for daily city operations. The Great Recession of 2008 wiped half a million dollars out of Snohomish’s budget, creating fears of “a new normal” of leaner budgets. It took six years before Snohomish sales tax revenue recoverd to pre-Recession levels.
Three options to diversify the city’s income sources are to add a tax on cable TV companies, charge an additional city fee on garbage hauler Republic Services or add a public utility tax on stormwater. The council might discuss these ideas this spring.
More from the Tribune:
SNOHOMISH — Mayor Linda Redmon’s preliminary $80 million two-year budget through 2024 adds more community services, outlines goals for modernizing the city and dedicates millions of dollars toward future projects. The City Council, though, will soon have to start making choices on how to ensure the budget is sustainable into future years as labor costs will be rising, Redmon told the council last week.
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