Pierce County is hitting the reset button on its controversial plan to launch a taxing district to pay for flood control.
The new district could collect more from property owners than was planned last time around.
County officials say they’re stepping up outreach efforts to cities and towns, including ones that previously objected to a countywide flood-control zone district because they didn’t want to be forced to subsidize river-valley communities.
“We determined we needed to take a little more time and start the process over again, with an emphasis on communication and outreach,” said County Councilwoman Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup.
County staffers are visiting cities such as Orting, which lies in the heart of flood country, and Lakewood, which led the challenge against the previous version of the taxing district.
The County Council could start the process of forming a new district later this year. The earliest property owners would start paying is 2013.
The district could collect up to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value under state law, although McDonald and County Executive Pat McCarthy said they wouldn’t want to go higher than 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. That would mean $25 a year for a $250,000 home, and would amount to roughly $8.5 million annually in revenue if collected countywide.
Alternatively, there could be a flat fee assessed to nearly every parcel of land in the county. That was the plan last year when the County Council approved a $5 per-parcel annual fee and a $1.4 million 2011 budget for the new flood district.
Harold Smelt, the county’s surface water manager, said that was the easiest option to implement and was intended “to get things started.”
This time, officials are looking more at long-term flood-control needs, he said.
No revenue decisions have been made. The idea is that cities and towns would have a voice in those kinds of decisions through an advisory committee, officials said.
The County Council in May 2010 approved forming a flood control zone district. But eight months later, it voted – acting as the district’s board – to dissolve it in the face of litigation.
Lakewood and some other jurisdictions argued the new taxing authority wasn’t properly formed. They also had broader concerns, including that they’d be taxed for flood-control measures that wouldn’t directly benefit them.
The issue of equity hasn’t gone away. Leaders from Lakewood, Steilacoom and DuPont discussed it during a meeting with county staffers last week.
“It seems to me that we clearly do have an interest (in flood control), but that it isn’t as direct as for those people on the flood plain,” said DuPont City Councilman John Ehrenreich.
The group talked about using variable payments in which communities closer to rivers would shell out more.
County Councilman Dick Muri, whose district includes Lakewood, Steilacoom and DuPont, said he wants to see the idea explored and a technical analysis done.
“We need to come up with a concept. There are obviously areas that are affected more,” he said in an interview after the meeting.
McDonald said “subzones” could pose legal and administrative problems, and that flooding affects the entire county, not just the lowland communities along rivers.
But, she said, “we’ll do our very best to ensure people’s concerns are heard.”
Officials say a major flood in the county could do more than $725 million in damage, shutting down roadways, disrupting the Port of Tacoma and damaging wastewater treatment plants near rivers, sending raw sewage into the water.
“We need to be masters of our own destiny in Pierce County,” said McCarthy, the county executive, who’s working with McDonald on the district. “What the public expects elected leaders to do is look to the future and anticipate problems. We’re talking about it, working on it, trying to find short-term solutions for today and long-term solutions for tomorrow.”
Money generated through the district could help pay for projects ranging from shoring up levees to buying flood-prone properties. It could also help with the local share of a six-year Army Corps of Engineers study that could lead to millions in federal funding.
The Pierce County Rivers Flood Hazard Management Plan is being updated and can help guide priorities, officials said.
Some money also could be turned over to communities for expenses such as maintaining storm water systems.
Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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