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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06City of Port Townsend (360) 379-5047 (email: citycouncil@ci.port-townsend.wa.us) www.ci.port-townsend.wa.us June 2005 Port Townsend Tax Levy by Levy District County 16% City General 18%State 26% Local School 29% City EMS 4% Hospital 4% PUD 1% Port 2%Conservation Futures 0% General Fund Taxes by Category Property Tax - General 29% Property Tax - EMS 7% Retail Sales Tax 30% Retail Sales Tax - Criminal Justice 2% Public Utility Tax - Water 4% Public Utility Tax - Sewer 5% Public Utility Tax - Garbage 2% Public Utility Tax - Storm 1% Private Utility Tax - Cable Franchise 1% Private Utility Tax - Telephone 5% Private Utility Tax - Electric 6% Leasehold Excise Taxes 1% Business & Occupation Taxes 7% City Update From City Manager David Timmons In the near future every property owner in the City will be receiving an updated property assessment from the County Assessor’s Office. State law requires that real property be assessed at 100% of “Fair Market Value.” This value is determined by definition and formulas, but is primarily based upon comparable sales data. Since the City has seen an exceptional in- crease in real estate sales, the new “Fair Market Value” of your real property may come as a sur- prise. Making sense about how this new value will im- pact your property tax bill is even more confus- ing. Imagine your new assessment shows a value increase of 25%! Does this mean your property taxes will increase by 25%? No, it does not. The amount you will pay will depend on the relative value of your property to the total value of all the properties in the City. Imagine a property tax pie and let’s say the total cost of the tax pie is $8. The pie is sliced into 8 pieces and each piece is worth the same amount, so each person who owns a slice must pay $1 per slice in taxes. When property is re- appraised the price of the pie stays at $8 but the value of each slice is re-apportioned. So the value of your slice may increase but other slices are now worth more than yours and some are worth less. Before reappraisal everyone paid $1 per slice but you might have to pay more or less property taxes than before depending on the new values assigned to the other slices. The bottom line - the government still only gets $8 for the pie. More useful information is available on the As- sessor’s web site at www.co.jefferson.wa.us/ assessors. YOU ARE INVITED TO A COUNCIL WORKSHOP JUNE 13. The Public Works Engineering Depart- ment will be presenting comments from the public open house design charrettes on the Haller Foun- tain/Taylor Street streetscape and the upper Sims Way and Howard Street corridor design. Location of the workshop will be announced at a later date. 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS Come join us at Fort Worden for the annual spectacular 4th of July fire- works display. The event will begin around 10:00 p.m. and will be visible from any place that overlooks the beach at Point Wilson. The fireworks are co-sponsored by Sunrise Rotary, Fort Worden State Park, Jefferson County Fire Dis- trict 6, Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce, Jef- ferson Transit and the City of Port Townsend. CALL FOR ARTISTS The Port Townsend Sister City Friends is sending out a call for artists. The group is commissioning an art piece to give as a gift to the City’s Sister City in Ichikawa, Japan. The visit will take place in early November. There will be a juried competition in which members of the Port Townsend Sister City Friends and mem- bers of the Port Townsend Arts Commission will serve as jurors. Artists will be asked to submit a let- ter of interest along with a description of the piece and pictures or samples of their work. Artists may submit any appropriate new or previously created work for consideration. The requirements for the art piece are as follows: 1.It may be any medium of visual art such as painting, sculpture, glass, wood, ceramic, textile art, photography, etc. (this is not meant to be an all inclusive list.) 2.It must be appropriate for transport to Japan on a commercial airline. It can weigh no more than 40 lbs and can be no larger than 60 lineal inches. 3.The artist must be a Jefferson County resident. 4.All art pieces must be complete and ready for wrapping (framed) by October 1, 2005. 5.The artwork will represent the heritage, history, environment or spirit of the Port Townsend/ Jefferson County area. 6.The art piece will not mimic an Asian theme. 7.It may cost no more than $500.00. Please submit an application, letter of interest and photographs of your work by June 30, 2005 to: Catherine McNabb City of Port Townsend 181 Quincy St #301 Port Townsend, WA 98368 The application is available on the City’s web site. Please call Catherine McNabb at 379-5089 with any questions. The winner will have a reception in his or her honor and a presentation of the gift at a City Council meeting. The artwork will be given to the City of Ichikawa by the Sister City Friends with a brief biography of the artist translated into Japa- nese. The City of Ichikawa displays the gifts they re- ceive from Port Townsend in a museum quality gal- lery in their cultural center. WEDNESDAY FARMERS MARKET located Uptown on Polk Street will begin June 15. Our apologies to the Arts Commission, PT Shorts and everyone who was to partici- pate in the reading of the plays on Saturday, May 7 in the Pope Marine Park Build- ing. There was an unfortunate mixup with the reservation schedule which we were not able to resolve. PT Shorts is a vital Arts Commission program and we sincerely want to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you Jefferson County Historical Society! Deputy Mayor Michelle Sandoval received a $35,000 check from the JCHS on Friday, May 20, 2005 that will pay for damp proofing City Hall. The money is a portion of a $200,000 matching grant from the National En- dowment for the Humanities and becomes avail- able as the JCHS raises funds to help with the res- toration. Attending the endowment from the mu- seum were Director Bill Tennent, Museum Coordi- nator Marsha Moratti, Chairman of the Capital Campaign David Hero and Historic Preservation Architect Kate Johnson. Attending from the City were Deputy Mayor Michelle Sandoval, City Engi- neer David Peterson, Engineering Assistant Kathy Howard and Project Manager Tom Miller.