SNOHOMISH — The city won’t take a 1% property tax increase this year. A 6-1 vote at council decided to take no increase. Councilwoman Karen Guzak gave the dissenting vote.
The city administration advised taking the increase as part of building its 2024 budget. It estimates a 1% increase would have brought an additional $13,000 next year. The impact on residents would have been an increase of $3 to $4. Guzak said this $13,000 would have helped pay toward Snohomish’s goals.
“In the scheme of a multimillion dollar budget, it’s a small amount,” Guzak said by phone, but not taking the 1% increase now puts it aside into called banked taxing capacity, where a future council could increase property taxes beyond 1%. Last week’s decline adds 1% this “bank.” Cumulatively, it’s at 6%.
Guzak said if a future council took banked capacity, it would cause a much larger rise.
Prior to the 6-1 vote, Guzak put forward a motion to take a 1% property tax increase. A council majority voted that down 5-2, with Guzak and Council President Tom Merrill outvoted.
Governments are limited to taking a 1% increase each year. In the 2000s, voters passed an initiative to limit tax increases to 1% annually.
SNOHOMISH — Things fell through between the county and the initial prospective buyer for the former county public works yard on Avenue D opposite 13th Street. The buyer “was unable to obtain the financing to purchase the property,” said the site’s project manager in county public works, Randy Blair.
The county is now negotiating with another prospective buyer interested in the site, Blair said.
