‘Something is seriously wrong’: Hosts weigh in on WA’s 1% property tax cap impacting Clyde Hill’s budget crisis

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?

“I am not one for saying, ‘Yes, more taxes.’ In this case, though, I do want cities to have flexibility, but I don’t want to change what’s there,” Angela continued. “I think they should go to the voters in their community and let them sign off on it. Edmonds made a choice; Clyde Hill can make that same choice.”

Ursula cautioned that raising taxes only shifts the burden to homeowners

Ursula built on the point, cautioning that homeowners are already stretched thin.

“And they’d face the consequences if you had to cut services,” Ursula said. “I agree with you. I think people are feeling so squeezed. The message in this is that homeowners, in particular, but people are just feeling taxed out. Simply allowing the cities to collect more taxes is not a solution because that’s just handing the bill to homeowners who are already feeling squeezed. But it doesn’t mean that if you limit overall levies that a government can collect to 1%, it does not mean your individual property tax bill can only rise by 1%. Take it to the voters, give us some say.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.