Citizens of Ocean Shores: The City Council will be asking to increase the Basic Levy Property Tax in 2017 by 0.3258 cents per 1000 based upon the October 24th 2016 Council Meeting documents. This is a little less because the valuation of Ocean Shores went up to $973.962,975 and that causes the levy to drop some from what was proposed on the previous Council meeting.
However, the City will still get the same amount of revenue they are asking for, $2,765,178 for the General Fund, $269,788 for the Library giving a total of $3,034,966. Note that this is just the General Fund amount.
You now add the EMS Regular Levy of .50 cents per 1000, which is separate from the statutory cap of $3.375 calculation, to get $486,981. The only Special Levy we have is the Sewer System Bond which some Seniors and Disabled people are exempt from. The valuation for that amount is $951,321,696. Here they will get $1,485,013 toward that obligation.
The total Property Tax Levy to the City will be $5.1771 per 1000. The revenue that will generate will be $5,006,960.
The Special Levies, the amount you pay next year will not include the Point Brown Bond Payment because we have finally paid that off. It was 0.0562 per 1000 last year. However, the Sewer Treatment Plant Bond amount will go up .0309 per 1000.
Know that not all property owners had an increase in value. Some did and others did not. Yet, the whole city went up 4.14%. 2.12% was New Construction and 2.02% was the Existing Base of Property going up. So, the bottom line is that your net increase, if you are not exempted from the Special Levies because of Senior or Disabled Exemptions, will be 0.3004 per 1000.
It is important to realize that if we had not paid off the Point Brown debt, we would be paying .3566 per 1000. Yet, the City will act like just because we are paying less this year because we paid it off, you still want to keep paying a higher tax.
Also, our higher valuations will cause you to pay additional money to the City, even with a lower levy because of their increase in the Basic General Levy. We should enjoy the benefit of paying off the debt and having a lower tax rate.
They will try to say that for a $150,000 house you will pay $3.76 more this year per month. But for many, Social Security is only giving them a .3% increase. That increase is not going to happen. Why? Because that additional amount is going to be absorbed by the increase in the Medicare Premium increase. In fact, many new applicants to Medicare or those who don’t have Social Security will be paying even more for that Medicare Premium. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/2017-cost-living-adjustment-adds-measly-4-average-senior-social-security-check/
What is the bottom line here for many in Ocean Shores? We saw water rates increased. We saw the PUD increase the Base Rate from around $4.46 to $19.44. We saw the gas taxes go up July. We know that the cable company is raising their rates too. Sales tax is going up 3/10ths of 1%. They are talking about a Transportation Benefit District (TBD) that could by Council vote impose $20 increased tab fees for your car over the current State increases. Moreover, an additional 2/10ths of 1% Sales Tax increases could be on the ballot because of the TBD too. How much of that “fictional” Social Security increase will be left or will it, and more, be gobbled up by these increases. Even private sector working people are not seeing big raises.
Randy Peck
Ocean Shores
