It’s official. The Mercer Island City Council adopted an ordinance to place a parks levy renewal proposition on the upcoming Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Also at council’s July 19 meeting, it adopted a resolution noting that the city intends to end the current parks levy lid lift a full year early if the new levy is passed in order to avoid any levy overlapping.
Deadline to submit the ballot ordinance and an explanatory statement to King County Elections (KCE) is Aug. 2. Pro and con committees must submit their respective statements to KCE by Aug. 9 and rebuttal statements by Aug. 11. Council appointed three residents to the pro committee and one to the con committee on July 19. The city received a total of five applications from residents wishing to join the committees and contribute to the statements, which will be included in the local voters’ pamphlets.
If the new levy passes, it will take effect on Jan. 1, 2023. The levy is slated to last for 16 years.
Discussions for the proposal began at council’s June 7 meeting when City Manager Jessi Bon said that because of the immense effort that council put into adopting the six-year PROS (Parks, Recreation and Open Space) Plan on March 1, city staff felt it was go-time to propose an early levy renewal. Council listened to a second reading of the ordinance on July 19.
Geraldine Poor, a 24-year Island resident and board member of the city’s Open Space Conservancy Trust for more than a decade, spoke in favor of the parks renewal ordinance via Zoom at the July 19 meeting. Poor said she has worked, walked or run every trail in Pioneer Park and Engstrom Open Space.
“In addition to the local value of Pioneer Park, I want to highlight the regional value of the park, providing bird and wildlife habitat as part of a regional open space system with jewels like Seward Park, Juanita Woods and the Mountains to Sound Greenway,” she said.
According to a previous Reporter article, the current levy’s funding stands at $980,122 for parks operations and maintenance ($728,122) and capital projects ($252,000).
With the city applying a 1% increase, the new levy — if approved — would roll out at $1,629,332 with $735,403 for parks operations and maintenance and $254,520 for capital projects in addition to $414,355 for full funding of playground replacement costs and $225,054 for Forest Management Plan projects funding except for the second phase of tree planting. The levy features operations and maintenance funding of Luther Burbank Park and forest restoration funding at Pioneer Park and Engstrom Open Space and more.
The current parks and operations and maintenance budget is listed at $2.34 million and focuses on tending to parks, athletic and school fields and trails.
Proposition 1, which the levy renewal measure will be referred to on the ballot, sets the maximum city property tax levy rate at $0.862/$1,000 for 2023, according to a city report.
A report from city attorney Bio Park states that the proposition is estimated to cost the owner of a median-valued $2,375,000 home $18.94 per month in 2023, which is an estimated increase of $7.55 per month compared to the current parks levy in 2022. Qualifying seniors, disabled veterans and others are exempt.
For more information, visit https://letstalk.mercergov.org/parks-levy-renewal
