Thanks to Judith White for bringing this to our attention.
Public Notice: King County Assessor Town Hall meetings in Auburn, June 22, 2010 and Federal Way, June 23, 2010.
KING COUNTY, WA - “Wondering where your property tax dollars go?” and “Seeking property tax relief and answers on your property valuations?”King County Assessor Lloyd Haraand King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer (District 7) will be co-hosting Town Hall meetings with representatives from the Board of Equalization, King County Treasury and King County Tax Advisor Office on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 and Wednesday, June 23, 2010 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to discuss property valuations and the services that the Department of Assessments provides to assist property owners in light of the current economic downturn.
WHO: King County Assessor, Lloyd Hara
King County Councilmember, Pete von Reichbauer (District 7)
King County Board of Equalization
King County Treasury
King County Tax Advisor Office
WHAT: Town Hall Meeting on Understanding Property Valuations
WHEN: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 *Auburn
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 *Federal Way
TIME: 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
WHERE: Auburn High School - Library Room
800 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA 98002-5078
Federal Way 320th Library - Conference Room 1 & 2
848 320th Street, Federal Way, WA 98003-5346
The state Democrats and Governor Gregoire are doing it to us again.
They passed a bill that will allow the Renton School District to increase our property taxes once again through levies.
There’s also a dirty little secret that the Renton School District does not want you to know. What is it? We’ll let the cat out of the bag in a future post. Stay tuned.
Many people that vote for these levies may not realize that it directly affects their rent. Just because you live in an apartment or rental home, the property taxes for that building will go up. You may not see the increase until your lease is up, but you will feel the impact.
Maybe the Renton School District should figure it out that building new schools does not always improve test scores.
The Renton School District needs to get a backbone and start disciplining kids that act up in class. They should ban cell phones from being used during class and be thankful to the parents of private and home school kids that are paying for education TWICE! Once through their property taxes and again through their tuition and school supplies they must purchase. They are literally giving the Renton School District thousands of dollars per month for services they don’t use.
Renton used to have good schools. Many families in the late 60’s and early 70’s moved here to get away from the Seattle school district. A trend that continues today. Just look at the enrollment numbers for the Seattle School district.
Back in 80’s the Renton School District even closed some neighborhood schools due to declining enrollment.
They have now replaced just about every elementary school in the City of Renton but yet the test scores don’t seem to show any improvement. Where’s the problem?
The problem is we have a group of people running the City of Renton and the Renton School District that don’t care about the people, they only care about their power.
Remember this when the next election rolls around. Do your homework. Be certain you understand where your elected officials stand on issues important to you and don’t simply vote for them because “things seem to be going okay”.
Look at your property taxes. They’ve gone up. Have you services improved that much?
Look at your sales tax. It’s gone up. Do you get more out of the City of Renton with each tax increase?
Look at your income tax. Oh wait, we’re not all paying that yet…but we will.
Look at your cell phone tax. It’s gone up. Does you cell phone work better?
Look atyour utility tax. It’s gone up. And don’t forget there are additional taxes buried in there you don’t even see. Now we collect garbage every other week but yet we pay more.
Bottom line is the City of Renton, the Renton School District, King County and the State of Washington need to figure it out that businesses are leaving and will continue to until we get control of the spending in this state. That means jobs go away and the people start to follow.
They can’t keep sucking the taxpayers dry. Eventually enough people will wake up and realize they are being shammed.
Off our soap box. Here’s the story that put us over the edge.
Legislature OKs schools raise more through levies
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - State lawmakers passed a bundle of major education reforms Thursday, including a plan that should help the state compete for the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top program.
The education bills were the last major measures approved by the Democrat-led House and Senate on the final day of the 60-day regular session. They will be returning Monday for a special session to finish work on the state budget, but lawmakers were trumpeted the education agenda as a significant step forward.
This seems to be an ongoing source of confusion for a lot of homeowners here in Renton who are wondering “why are my property taxes still going up on our family home if the valuation has gone down?”
The problem comes from the fact that properties in King County were assessed in January 2009, just after home values began to plummet in the region. Complicating this problem were TWO specific SCHOOL levies that voters approved in Renton that added $300 million. That was just the upfront cost. Now add another 5 to 6 hundred million more for interest and you have the true cost of the levy.
Voodoo Tax economics is the word of the day from the Renton School District Administration. They pushed misinformation to inform the misinformed that the School Bonds would hardly raise their property taxes. These overpaid school bureaucrats now consume more than 33.5 percent of your yearly property taxes.
When it comes to SOARING PROPERTY taxes, count your lucky stars you don’t live in Renton.
Add to that the fact that test scores have yet to improve significantly and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. It’s no surprise that 2 of the 3 council members that have school age children choose private school or homeschooling over the Renton School District.
We’ve been reminded by several readers that Valley Medical Center has a history of scandal and controvery. Take for example the above story by Robert Mak. (Story starts at about 57 seconds in.)
We encourage you to research the candiates and isues before you vote. Research how the candidates have voted on taxes. Do they listen to the voters? Have they made public statements for something and voted against it? Do you fully understand the issues on the ballot? Are you voting based on a TV or Radio Ad or have you read your Voters Guide.
All of us have very busy schedules. One advantage of vote by mail is you can sit down with your ballot and research every candiate you are voting for.
King County has a great tool on their web site. It will produce a copy of your ballot so you know exactly who will appear on your ballot (if you haven’t received it yet). Check it out here. Fill in the box on the right that looks like this (This is just to show you what it looks like, it’s not the actual form):
By CURT WOODWARD Associated Press Writer OLYMPIA, Wash.(AP) - National labor unions and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates are among the donors who have poured nearly $1.5 million of last-minute cash into the campaign against Initiative 1033, a ballot measure that would slow the growth of state and local governments.
The donations were collected over the past two weeks, but weren’t disclosed publicly until Saturday, when the No on I-1033 campaign reported its recent fundraising efforts to state campaign regulators.
Why would we post something here about Bellingham? Because we want voters to be informed. Here are a few audio clips from KGMI-AM in Bellingham from Mayor Pike and Tim Eyman.
“I think it’s the role of a city to provide education and information about what the impacts will be to the city,” Mayor Pike said.
“This effort by government to basically use tax dollars to oppose a ballot measure is actually the reason why in the latest poll it shows that it’s 61 percent ‘yes,’ 31 percent ‘no,’ with 8 percent undecided, exactly because they try and manipulate the game the way they do.”
To hear interviews of both positions, visit KGMI.com.
Take notice of how the Renton Reporter headlines this story.
“Renton City Council opposes Initiative 1033, which limits revenues“. Hello. We all know that the revenue stream for a city comes from taxes. Why not call it what it is?
We spoke previously about the assessed values of homes being reduced in some cases by as much as 26%. Again, we ask the question, are my property taxes going to go down by 26%?
Jay Covington states, “If voters approve I-1033, those revenues will likely be diverted to reduce property taxes, severely impacting the city’s ability to afford future investments in infrastructure.”
News flash. The Landing is not bringing in the revenues the City of Renton forecast (with or without I-1033 passing). What Jay’s really saying is that the Landing is not paying for itself and we’re going to have to cut back on other infrastructure improvements in the City because we have to service the debt for The Landing.
Sounds like The City of Renton is trying to figure out a way to cover up how much money we as taxpayers are going to have to dump into The Landing over the next several years until the economy recovers.
Renton City Council opposes Initiative 1033, which limits revenues
Oct 01 2009, 5:08 PM
For the Renton Reporter
The Renton City Council on Monday voted unanimously to oppose Tim Eyman’s latest initiative, Initiative 1033, which is on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The vote came after council members listened to speakers about the pros and cons of the initiative, which would limit certain state, county and city revenue to annual inflation and population growth, not including voter-approved revenue increases.
Read more of the tax increase story at the Renton Reporter. We’re not sure we’ve ever seen the Renton City Council come out in favor of an initiative that would force them to cut spending.
So first we see this happen with the Renton School Disctrict. Now we see this happening at Valley Medical Center. What’s next? The City of Renton? Remember, you fund the hospital through your property taxes. If you want to know how much, follow these steps:
Enter your house number and street name (just the house number and street no direction)
Select your address from the list
Click the “Get Property Report” link below your address (it’s a pop up so you may have to unblock)
Select the “Property Tax Information for this property” (it’s in the “Related Resources Section” towards the bottom of the page (Again, it’s a pop up to you may have to unblock)
On the next page, click the “Search” button to search for your “Real Property Tax”
About 1/2 down the page you will see a section with 3 tabs. Tax Year Details, Receipts, 2009 Tax/Fee Distribution. Click on “2009 Tax/Fee Distribution”
You will see a line reading “Hospital”. Keep in mind that just because your address in Renton, you may not be in the Valley Medical Center Hospital District.
While you are there, take a look at how your property taxes break down. Many assessed values were reduced by the County Assessor. Just because your home value went down by 26% does not mean that your property taxes will be reduced as well. The Renton City Council will identify what revenue they need to bring in and your taxes could actually increase.
As far as the Golden Parachute, legally Roodman he probably did earn the money, but why was the large some of money offered in the contract to begin with?
Keep in mind the board members of Valley Medical Center have been involved in Renton politics for many years.
Also be sure to read some of the comments on KOMO’s site and post some of your own below.
Over the years a buzzword in politics has been transparency.
We’ve heard it from leaders at the national level right down to our community activists. It looks like Kansas has accomplished exactly what we need here in Washington State as well as the City of Renton.
In 2007, Kansas lawmakers took the lead with first-in-the-nation legislation to create an innovative budget transparency Web site. Led by Rep. Kasha Kelley and Sen. Tim Huelskamp et al., this legislation, which created the widely popular www.kansas.gov/kanview/, now allows Kansas taxpayers to see how their hard earned dollars are being spent with the click of a mouse.
