Normandy Park Proposition One

The Normandy Park City Council has placed Proposition One on the November 3rd General Election ballot. Proposition One asks Normandy Park voters to decide if a Metropolitan Park District should be formed in Normandy Park for the purpose of operating and managing parks and recreation programs and facilities. If approved by voters, the Metropolitan Park District would form and begin operation for 2010.

The Metropolitan Park District will have authority to levy property taxes, for the restricted and dedicated use of continuing maintenance of Normandy Park’s EXISTING parks, natural area lands, and recreation programs and, supporting aquatics at Mount Rainier Pool in partnership with the Highline School District and Des Moines. A small portion of the funds could be used to leverage grants and other opportunities for new parks equipment and facilities.

As recent as 10 years ago, Normandy Park received over $850,000 from sales tax equilization aid, motor vehicle excise taxes and motor vehicle license fees. Initiatives and subsequent action by the State of Washington that capped property tax increases by 1% eliminated and capped these revenue sources at severe limits. The result: Normandy Park no longer receives $850,000 from these revenue sources. Adding to the financial problem is the increased cost of doing business today than 10 years ago (inflation has been far greater than 1% per year).

In response to the substantial revenue declines over the past 10 years, the City began reducing services, including street maintenance, park maintenance, storm drainage maintenance and infrastructure improvements. In some years, reserve funds were used to balance the budget where further reductions would have severely impacted city services to the point of rendering them useless. The City’s reserves are now reduced to a minimally acceptable level, and further use of reserves is not desirable or advisable.

Due to reduced services over the past 10 years, there is now hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred infrastructure maintenance costs. The city streets, parks, storm water drainage, buildings and facilities are in very poor condition and, in some cases, approaching unsafe conditions.

The financial picture is exacerbated by the current downturn in the economy in which there is less sales tax revenue, and reduced licenses and permits revenue. All other miscellaneous revenue is down, too. The financial conundrum the city faces is the “The Perfect Storm”.

The proposed Metropolitan Park District is part of a strategy for achieving a more stable financial future for the City of Normandy Park. There are four primary components of the City’s strategy to address revenue shortfalls:

• Generating new revenue through sales taxes via economic development is a preferred approach because it does not add to the tax burden of Normandy Park residents;


• Aggressively pursue grants. In the past two years, the City has been awarded significant amounts in outside grant funding that cannot be used for day-to-day operations;


• Establishing the Metropolitan Park District; and


• Cut or reduce expenditures, when possible.

By implementing the four-part strategy to increase revenue, building a more stable financial future is possible. Over $300,000 has been cut from the 2009 operating budget and an estimated $500,000 in additional cuts will be necessary in 2010 without the formation of a Metropolitan Parks District. The City's annual operating budget is about $4.3 million so, the cuts represent close to 20% of the budget. Cuts of this amount will result in significant reductions to City services, including Police/Public Safety, Parks, Recreation, Street Maintenance, Snow/Ice Removal, Facility Maintenance, Engineering, Senior Services, and Planning/Permit Services.

Currently, the City collects about $200 per person from property taxes, which is well below average compared to similarly sized cities. Normandy Park’s per person property tax is less than Gig Harbor, Fife, Fircrest, Woodinville, Steilacoom, Stanwood, DuPont, Newcastle, Sumner, Snoqualmie, and SeaTac. Of the property taxes paid by its property owners, Normandy Park only receives 10 cents of every tax dollar.

The total revenue, from all sources, collected to support city services is $823 per person, the third lowest amount among comparable cities, and less than half the revenue per person of the average city in western Washington.

The amount to be raised by the Metropolitan Park District in 2010 is estimated at $535,000 (based on estimates of the assessed value of properties in 2010). The Metropolitan Park District revenue will be used to maintain EXISTING parks, trails, and natural areas lands, and to help operate the aquatics programs at Mount Rainier Pool (located in Des Moines, yet extensively used by Normandy Park residents for many generations), and to help sustain the EXISTING parks and recreation services that the city currently provides, including addressing deferred maintenance and repairs over the past several years.

The Metropolitan Park District will help prevent imminent deep cuts to and potentially wholesale elimination of EXISTING routine maintenance and repairs of our parks, natural areas, and recreational facilities. The District revenues will retain maintenance that keeps existing park and recreation infrastructure safe and open to use.

City Council Opposes Initiative 1033

October 13, 2009 – The Normandy Park City Council, in a unanimous vote, adopted Resolution No. 819, Stating the City Council’s Opposition to Initiative 1033 on the November 3, 2009 General Election Ballot. The City Council’s action followed a presentation by City Manager Doug Schulze, which explained how Initiative 1033, if passed, will reduce future revenues generated by the City by a projected amount of $500,000 annually.

City Manager Schulze reported that due to revenue shortfalls in 2009, approximately $400,000 has been cut from the budget and additional cuts of $500,000 may be necessary in 2010 before any further reductions required by Initiative 1033 are considered. The City of Normandy Park has an annual operating budget of $4.3 million.

I-1033 is intended to reduce property taxes over time. Property tax is a regressive tax, which means the amount paid increases as the value of property (wealth) increases. As a result, if passed, I-1033 shifts the tax burden to progressive taxes (sales and utility), which is paid equally by everyone regardless of income or wealth. Based on the projected $500,000 annual impact to the City of Normandy Park, the benefit of I-1033 would be approximately $180 for the owner of an average home in Normandy Park. However, the owner of a $6.0 million commercial property in Normandy Park would see a benefit of approximately $1,200 annually.

Business License Process Update

As of June 30th, the City Clerk’s Office processed and issued over 150 business licenses for 2009 and continues to receive new applications each month. With home-based business license activity in July it is likely that 200 business licenses will be issued by the end of July. Initially, we estimated that approximately 300 business licenses would be issued annually. While we may not reach 300 licenses in 2009, we continue to contact businesses that conduct business transactions in Normandy Park, but have not applied for a business license and have received at least 15 new applications each month.

The fee for an annual City of Normandy Park business license is $50.00.

King County Executive’s RapidRide Proposal

King County Executive Kurt Triplett has proposed saving five planned new RapidRide routes in Metro Transit’s highest ridership corridors and providing for an additional one-million new passenger trips a year on the 520 bridge at no net increase in taxes. His proposal would use 5.5 cents of new taxing authority granted by the 2009 legislature, but would be offset by rolling back an equal amount in two other levies.

By reprioritizing transportation dollars now spent on passenger ferries to buses, Triplett proposes 4.5 cents of the Ferry District property tax be rolled back for four years, leaving enough money to move forward with plans to expand Vashon Island and West Seattle Water Taxi passenger ferry service. Triplett proposes drawing down cash reserves from the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) program to allow for a one cent rollback to this levy without jeopardizing the work. Combined, the two tax reductions would mean no net increase in taxes to homeowners while creating more stable, dedicated funding to Metro Transit. >Read More<

1st Avenue South Project Update

A Notice to Proceed was issued to Pivetta Bros. Construction on July 22nd and construction will finally begin within the next 10 days. City staff have found that despite the desires of President Obama and Congress, the ARRA funds have clearly resulted in more paperwork, rules and “red tape”. As a result of the extraordinary bureaucratic process, start of construction has taken two months longer than originally anticipated. However, we are hopeful that the contractor will still be able to complete the project by the end of 2009 or first quarter of 2010.

The project field office was recently opened at Normandy Place, 19439 1st Avenue South. Project Manager Gary Norris and the construction inspectors will operate out of the field office for the duration of the project. The field office number is 206-878-2106.

The Groundbreaking Ceremony and Project Open House on July 15th was well-attended. Many Normandy Park residents and business people expressed interest in the project and are excited about the pedestrian and bicycle enhancements that will improve access to the Normandy Park Towne Center.

State OFM Estimates Population Growth

The State of Washington Office of Financial Management has released the 2009 Population estimates. The OFM has estimated the 2009 population in Normandy Park to be 6,485, which is an increase of 60 over the 2008 estimate. The 2000 U.S. Census estimated population for Normandy Park was 6,392.

Initiative 1033 – Concerning State, County and City Revenues

On Thursday, July 2, 2009, initiative sponsor Tim Eyman submitted Initiative 1033 (I-1033) with sufficient signatures to qualify for the November general election ballot to the Secretary of State's office. If I-1033 passes in November, it would limit the growth of state revenues deposited in funds subject to the state expenditure limit and limit growth in county and city revenues deposited into the county and city current expense funds. The limit would be adjusted based on annual growth in inflation and population and not include new voter-approved revenue increases. Revenue collected above the cap would be used to reduce property taxes. This would apply to city general fund revenues in 2010, with the limit set at 2009 revenues adjusted for inflation and population growth. Although the initiative states that new voter-approved revenues would be exempt for 2010, it also states that new voter-approved revenue is defined as the increase in revenue approved by the city's voters at an election after the effective date of this act. Since the November election is the last of 2009, any voter-approved tax increases passed in 2009 would likely be subject to this initiative and not excluded from the revenue limitations.

Initiative 1033 could have a significant impact on the City of Normandy Park if it is approved by voters. Currently, revenues are not sufficient to cover the operating costs and, because the city is developed with no potential for significant growth, there would be no opportunity to generate new revenues to cover the necessary operating expenses. Any new revenue generated from grants, sales tax, licenses and permits would result in equal reductions in property taxes. This would have a significant impact on the City's budget in years following receipt of large grants or in years following high volumes of building permit activity.