PORT ANGELES — The levy that would be created if voters approve the William Shore Memorial Pool tax district would generate enough to fund a tentative $474,000 budget to maintain and operate the aging facility, compared with the $409,000 the city budgeted for 2009.
The spending plan includes $100,000 in salary and benefits for a park district director.
That consists of about $70,000 in wages, a package comparable to the existing pool director position, said Gary Holmquist, who helped put together the budget.
Two additional salaried positions would merge into one hourly position, and existing pool programs and classes would not be eliminated, he said.
In addition, $50,000 annually would be set aside for additional maintenance and repairs, a line item not included in the city’s 2009 budget for the pool.
But the new taxing entity would be a metropolitan park district that has expansive taxing and borrowing powers, especially at the outset.
Pool board commissioners can levy up to 75 cents per $1,000 of valuation for the district’s initial levy rate — without a vote of the people.
Save the Pool organizers and elected officials have pledged to stay 1 or 2 cents within the estimated 15 cents per $1,000 of valuation called for in the May 19 ballot measure.
And at any time, the new district could borrow an amount equal to one-quarter of 1 percent of the value of the proposed district, which was $3.42 billion in 2009 — without a vote of the people.
The new district would have the same boundaries as the Port Angeles School District.
Without voters’ consent, the pool district board could borrow $8.55 million based on 2009 valuations.
If approved, the district expects to borrow money: $90,000 as the first payment on a 10-year, $750,000 loan needed to keep it going until April 1, 2010, when levy money would start coming in. The district also must pay $60,500 in election costs.
If it pays the loan back at 3 percent interest over 10 years, it will cost the district $900,000, Holmquist said.
But the district won’t borrow additional money without going back to voters because there’s no additional money to pay it back, meaning the levy would have to increase — and meaning voters would have their say once again, Holmquist said.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.
