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The Port of Everett is asking voters outside of its boundary area to annex into the port’s taxing district.
It says enlarging its boundary will benefit the county at large through its funding for environmental remediation projects and its broad economic development abilities.
The port’s tax rate this year was 19 cents per $1,000 in assessed value for property owners within its boundary. People outside the boundary, who have Prop 1 on their ballot, currently do not pay a port tax.
The cost of this tax rate for a $500,000 home was $110.
Ballots for the August election began arriving in mailboxes last week. Ballots are due Aug. 6 for voters to turn them in.
The port’s current boundaries are most of Everett, portions of Mukilteo, and small parts of Marysville and unincorporated Snohomish County, or about 15% of the county, according to the port.
The port operates like a quasi-business that has three elected public commissioners. Its key operations include an international seaport, a large public marina and real estate development.
Because the tax base is small, the port’s tax-backed bonding capabilities to raise capital are limited even though it can pay back the debt, Port CEO Lisa Lefeber told the Snohomish City Council April 16.
The commissioners are elected by geographic areas. If Proposition 1 is approved, next year the port will be redrawing its commissioner map to have the geography represent the enlarged boundaries and have a second ballot measure asking the public to approve.
The port’s taxes currently collect about $6 million per year. If Proposition 1 is approved, the port would collect $33 million in taxes annually.
Lefeber said this collected tax money is dumped into the port’s larger capital improvement projects bucket versus kept separate.
Tax dollars do not go to operations or staff salaries, which are paid for from its business operations.
In the past 7 years the port spent $185 million in capital expenditures, of which $25 million came from port taxes, Lefeber said.
“Our job is to create jobs,” Lefeber said.
A definitive list of how much tax money was spent for exactly which project in recent years was not available from the port by the Tribune’s print deadline. A breakout list by category arrived after press time on Wednesday, July 24 and is shared below.
The port also can’t give a concrete list of what it would plan to do in the future if the boundaries expand countywide.
It would be reformulating its priority list in 2026 if Proposition 1 is approved after speaking with governments and entities in the larger port district to ask for their priorities. Before that, it would redraw its commissioner map.
Source: Port of Everett finance office
An overview of capital expenditures broken out by funding source for 2019 to 2023 including a separation of Operating Revenue versus Tax Revenue. (link to open picture full screen in new window)
Where money is invested
The port has spent millions toward conserving the 353-acre Blue Heron Slough between Everett and Marysville in the lower Snohomish River estuary. This project has received funding over a series of many years.
It’s spent millions more toward clean-up work at former industrial sites along the Everett waterfront.
As another example, if there is a potentially contaminated site of land (known as a brownfield) that the county wants to redevelop into a job center, the port can help work on this if it’s on the capital projects list, Lefeber said.
It’s also given grants for transportation projects. Everett received one to improve the 41st Street trucking corridor to move freight.
Its grants are competitive.
While its funding has gone for waterfront access, Lefeber said recreational projects do not need to only be near water. A trail between Snohomish and Monroe would be eligible for port grants, for example, if the port boundaries expanded, Lefeber said.
What opponents say
Opponents say the port wouldn’t improve what local governments are already tasked with doing. They also say they have no guarantee the port will invest the tax funds in their own city.
The port would not allocate tax money earned to give back on a per-capita basis to each city, Lefeber said. That is not effective to “peanut butter” the money countywide, Lefeber said.
It “would be a tremendous disservice to the economic benefits to the county” to do per-capita, Lefeber said.
Its intent is to strategically direct funding to specific needs.
A few have said introducing a port tax to the area could ultimately weaken the ability for schools or fire districts to pass levies or bonds due to tax fatigue.
“How many times will government put their fingers in my pocket?” Kathi Riley of Snohomish said April 16.
Opponents in Snohomish in particular allege the port’s money could go toward the private Harvey Airfield’s efforts to expand the airport in Snohomish.
Lefeber denied this as an “inflammatory” rumor.
It’s an “inflammatory, pure rumor to frustrate this process,” Lefeber said.
At the July 16 public port commission meeting, Lefeber reported she has not “talked with them, haven’t met with them, don’t even know them (the Harveys).”
What the public has said
In 2023, the port surveyed the public ahead of deciding how large it would ask voters to enlarge the port boundaries.
A 2023 public survey solidified the port’s decision to ask.
There were 1,514 respondents; more than two-thirds lived outside the Port of Everett’s boundaries.
Roughly 88% of the survey’s respondents said they own their own home. (Comparably, 68% of county residents own their own home, says a 2023 housing needs report by Snohomish County Tomorrow).
More than one-third of the respondents said they visit the Port of Everett’s properties weekly.
Some 42% of the respondents said they were interested in port resources being in their community. Another 41.1% were unsure or neutral to the idea. About 16% said they are not interested in the expansion.
Among Snohomish’s 10,000 residents, the port said 99 responded to the survey.
More information
The Port of Everett’s current boundaries were drawn in 1918.
Edmonds, the Port of Edmonds and the town of Woodway would be excluded from the proposed countywide expansion. Woodway is within the Port of Edmonds’ boundaries.
Not all of Washington’s 75 public port districts have waterfronts. Some are landlocked areas.
For more information, see the voter’s pamphlet mailed to all households. For information from the port, see www.portofeverett.com/boundaries
