Photo by Michael Whitney.
MONROE — Mayor Geoffrey Thomas’s $92 million recommended biennial budget continues to build on past momentum, has cash toward Trombley Park on the northside and the future city plaza downtown, funds Flock license plate-reading cameras to quicken solving police investigations, and invests in a big sewer treatment project.
A public hearing will be at the Tuesday, Nov. 12 City Council meeting, and the budget’s adoption is planned for Nov. 19. The council meets at 7 p.m. on Zoom and at the Monroe School District’s HQ at 14692 179th Ave. SE.
The plan includes funding for streetlights and road improvements.
The city’s new logo and branding will come into effect starting next year, too.
Thomas’s budget calls to increase the city property tax rate by an extra 1% over the state limit using Monroe’s banked property tax capacity. State law limits cities to a 1% increase annually, but if a city takes no increase, like Monroe has in the past, it’s not use-it-or-lose-it but instead it is “banked.”
The extra 1% increase would raise $154,000 to permanently fund one parks staff position. The effect is an increase of $0.02 of tax to each $1,000 of property value; for a $600,000 home, it’s an additional $12.
Thomas said if a ballot measure passes to increase property taxes to fund parks maintenance and Police Department positions which voters will decide this week after press time, its passage would not change the plan to use the banked property tax as the way to fund another parks staff member.
