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closeThe pros and cons of Initiative 1033
City services, jobs in danger of being cut
Derek Young
Special to the Gateway
This fall you’ll have another opportunity to vote on a ballot measure sponsored by Tim Eyman. In essence, Initiative 1033 is a replication of Colorado’s famed Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). The legislation is designed to limit new revenue to government to inflation and population growth.
Beyond that, I-1033 would apply new revenue to reducing property taxes. To demonstrate how this initiative would impact you, I’ll try to explain its affect on Gig Harbor, although state and county government also would see significant cuts.
With the Growth Management Act concentrating new growth into cities and away from rural areas, and a new toll bridge providing incentive for people to shop locally, the City of Gig Harbor has seen an explosion of growth in the past several years.
Understandably, that growth comes at a price. We see increased congestion on our streets, more area for police to protect and more demands for parks.
Fortunately, these projects also bring in new revenue in the form of property and sales tax to pay for those services.
Even still, the City of Gig Harbor, just like our families and businesses, is facing a budget crisis. We’re heavily dependent on sales tax, which, in good times, means we’ve been able to catch up on demand for services.
In this recession, people are wisely cutting back on their purchases, which, in turn, reduces revenue. But the timing is such that we were also anticipating more growth and planning infrastructure to serve it. Now commitments have been made without the growth to pay for it.
Already we face hard decisions. The Gig Harbor City Council will need to cut $1.9 million from an approximately $7.5 million dollar general fund budget. It will mean layoffs and serious cuts to capital projects in order to balance the budget.
I-1033 would magnify the effect of the recession.
Since it’s difficult to estimate the future impact of I-1033 with future revenue varying from year to year, we can back-test the measure to see what would have happened had it passed a few years ago.
Since 2001, Gig Harbor’s General Fund has grown from $6 million to a high of $12.3 million. With the growth in the general fund far exceeding population and inflation growth, I-1033 would have meant property taxes paid to Gig Harbor would be gone.
To an average owner of a $300,000 home, that would mean a reduction of $286.44 in property tax. Understandably, a lot of families would prefer to have that money back, but what would it mean to their quality of life?
Already steep cuts to capital projects and staff reductions have been made to balance the budget. With few projects left to cut, it would mean another 18 employees would have to be laid off. That’s an additional 20 percent of the workforce, with another 20 percent already at risk.
Reductions in service for police, planning and engineering would be severe. There would be times that you could call for a police officer and none would be available.
It’s hard to imagine the City Council would have had the chance to also provide other amenities this community values. Contributions to parks, the new Boys & Girls Club, Harbor History Museum and other projects would not have been considered.
It’s understandable to feel like taxes are too high, and it’s uncommon for a person to actually enjoy paying them. But they also translate to things we all need, and they get things done.
Growth in new businesses and residences in Gig Harbor North means massive upgrades will need to be made to roads in order to increase their capacity, but it won’t be possible to afford them If I-1033 passes. Large and life-threatening backups on state Route 16 will be the norm if I-1033 passes.
This initiative is being sold as a modest limit to growth in government. It’s not. In fact, I-1033 is a radical proposal that would remake state and local government in ways nobody living has ever seen.
Already, Colorado has abandoned its experiment with TABOR because the impact on its quality of life was too great.
We should learn from their mistake.