PORT ANGELES — His voice cracking with emotion, Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman urged cooperation between the public and private sectors Tuesday at the Port Angeles Business Association’s weekly breakfast meeting.
“If the public sector is doing well, government is doing well, and we should lock arms on the [North Olympic] Peninsula and say, ‘Yeah, we are working together,'” said Chapman, the group’s featured speaker, who represents Port Angeles District 2.
Chapman, first elected in 2001 as a Republican, ran as an independent in 2008 after a falling-out with county Republican Party leaders.
On Tuesday, addressing party concerns, he touted the 31 fewer county employees overall on the payroll since 2001 and the 14-employee increase in law and justice staff.
He also pointed to the commissioners cutting $1.4 million out of the county budget for 2011 without cutting services or programs.
And he expressed emphatic disdain for public officials “whining and crying during this time because they have less money to spend.”
“I’m tired of it,” Chapman told the more than two dozen meeting participants.
“You guys are living within your budgets. We are going to live within ours.”
Then he announced his next topic: taxes.
“All the Republicans are squirming in their seats, all the anti-tax folks,” Chapman said.
“The only thing we didn’t do is cut your taxes,” he said. “Quite frankly, the free market is taking care of that for you.”
Over the past 10 years, the commissioners have not asked for property taxes above the 1 percent increases allowed by law without a vote of the people, making the county commissioners “predictable” where property taxes are concerned, Chapman said.
The per $1,000 property tax rate for county government has dropped from $1.78 in 2003 to $1.19 for this year’s taxes for property assessed in 2010.
The $1.19 rate was certified Monday by County Assessor Pam Rushton, County Administrator Jim Jones said.
That translates to the owner of a $250,000 home paying $445 in taxes to support county services and salaries in 2003 compared with $298 in 2011.
Property tax base
The free market, Chapman said, increased the property tax base with $1.2 billion in new development in the past seven years, adding an average of $200,000 in additional property tax revenue to county coffers annually, Chapman said.
From 2003 to 2010, the county government portion of Chapman’s property taxes on his Port Angeles home increased just $26, to $184 in 2010, while the net value increased $73,000 in that same period.
His home is appraised at $162,000.
“Clallam receives more revenue from property taxes, and it is primarily coming from the private sector,” he said, decrying a negative “push and pull” between the public and private sectors.
“We are fighting against ourselves rather than working with the community,” Chapman said.
“The private sector should be saying, ‘We are grateful you have more money because of development. Thank you, government, for taking money and providing services so new housing developments can go online.'”
Chapman, also president of the William Shore Memorial Pool District commission, praised the commission for taking 14.8 cents per $1,000 of property tax valuation when the commission could have taken the maximum 15 cents per $1,000 in 2009 for 2010.
That was after 67 percent of voters approved forming a metropolitan park district to run the facility in 2009.
The levy will remain at 14.8 cents for 2011, too, Chapman said.
He estimated the district could have gained $1 million over 20 years for the pool had the pool commission increased taxes on its own by the allowed amount — about 15.3 cents per $1,000.
“That was money that was left in the community,” Chapman said, adding that he wanted to leave one message with the business association:
“It behooves the private sector and us as a community to pull together with your local officials,” Chapman said.
“Work with us.”
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
