Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Palouse City Council discussed what its next efforts may be to add to the town’s fire equipment reserve fund Jan. 14. The matter came up after the failure of a levy lid lift proposal in November by one vote.
The measure would have raised the town’s property tax baseline in order to direct more money to the fire department’s reserves.
Instead of Palouse’s current tax rate of $2.49 per $1,000 of assessed property value, the ballot measure would have raised it to $3.10 per $1,000. The effect would be a a $60 increase in annual taxes for a $100,000 home.
If approved, the levy would have put the Palouse property tax rate at the legal limit for Washington communities, which is $3.60 per $1,000. The extra 50 cents goes to the Whitman County Library District.
At present, 65 oercent of Palouse property taxes goes to the city’s current expense fund while 35 percent goes to the streets fund.
The levy lid lift proposal would have reduced the percentage to current expenses and streets and put 10 percent of property tax into a fire equipment reserve fund.
Right now the fire fund is a transfer from current expense, which varies like a savings account, Mayor Michael Echanove said.
“In hard times, those reserve accounts are the first thing to be reduced. That’s not a sustainable model,” said the mayor.
If voters had approved the proposal in November, it would have directed funds to both the Palouse Fire Department and Whitman County Rural Fire District No. 4,
“The levy lid lift was one mechanism to reach our goals in the 10-year time frame the chief wants,” he said, referring to Fire Chief Mike Bagott’s goal of $300,000 in reserves, which would be split evenly between the Rural Fire District No. 4 and the town of Palouse.
“And I’m committed to find that,” said Echanove.
With or without a levy lid lift, the city could also just decide to shift 10 percent of its property taxes to the fire reserve.
“We simply could,” said Echanove. “The trouble is, streets needs every penny it can get and we don’t want the current expenses fund to get too low. You’re dividing a pot that’s already pretty tight.”
At the same time, the town could attempt another levy lid lift, potentially this year in November.
“This was one avenue to explore in achieving these goals and I as mayor don’t think it should be taken off the table yet,” he said.
Overall, Echanove said the purpose of the levy lid lift idea is to make up for losses in general state support along with creating a long-term strategy to pay for the fire department.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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