Clyde Hill has raised concerns about its financial struggles stemming from a Washington law limiting the annual property tax increase to 1%, and the city’s budget doesn’t have much left to cut before basic city services are next to go.
KIRO host Ursula Reutin and KIRO fill-in host Angela Poe-Russell urged a review of the law that would be voted on by the city’s residents and wondered whether it would even be approved, given that people are already feeling “squeezed” by taxes.
“You know something is seriously wrong when one of the wealthiest cities around here is struggling to stay operational,” Angela said. “We don’t have to be rocket scientists to look at whether things are expensive for us as consumers. Cities and counties are having to deal with the same things: rising labor costs and health insurance costs. And if your main revenue source happens to be property taxes, and you can only raise it by 1%, for them, it would be nothing. It wouldn’t cover anything. The question is: Should the state legislature change the law and give cities more flexibility?…