PORT ANGELES – Tax questions fueled by the state Supreme Court’s overturn of Initiative 747 that limited governments to a 1 percent annual increase in property tax collections dominated a meeting with the region’s three state lawmakers Monday.
State Sen. Jim Hargrove and state Rep. Lynn Kessler, both D-Hoquiam, and state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, met with county public officials and agency representatives from both Clallam and Jefferson counties in the Clallam County Courthouse.
All three represent the 24th District that includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
Monday’s meeting brought the officials together in advance of the scheduled convening of the 2008 legislative session Jan. 14.
And the afternoon session was held just hours before Gov. Chris Gregoire called a special one-day session Nov. 29 presumably to reinstate Initiative 747’s 1 percent cap recently struck down by the state Supreme Court
Clallam County Treasurer Judith Scott said the 1 percent limit falls especially hard on small governments like rural fire districts.
“Some very small entities, they’re just struggling so,” she said.
Small governments’ survival can’t depend on current tax schemes, answered Kessler, who is also House majority leader.
“The property tax is not where we are going to cover them,” she said, especially with homeowners afraid they may lose their homes to taxation.
However, citizens may be asked to make unpopular choices, Kessler said.
“What services do you want to eliminate?” she asked.
