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.