The Columbian blows the call: In Our View-Check These Numbers

I’m a “no” on the library bond. I’m sure that will stun the average reader, but it’s true.

The Columbian is a yes… an equally stunning pronouncement. Now, let’s take a look at the why’s of it.

In “checking these numbers,” the Columbian goes farther out of their way then Steve Stuart to prove that figures don’t lie… but liars figure. And, of course, my concern is over the numbers they don’t WANT you to check. They tell us:

“63 cents That's how much additional property tax per week the owner of a $166,000 home will pay for these overdue improvements over 20 years if 60 percent of the voters agree. That's 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value or $33 a year on a $166,000 house. For the owner of a house worth twice as much $332,000 it would be $1.26 a week, about the cost of a cup of coffee.”

So… is there some reason they don’t tell us how much that cost will be… over the 20 years of the bond?

Let me help you with that: In my case, the total cost will be something on the order of 20x52x$1.51. That totals… 1040x$1.51=$1574.40… in today’s dollars.

What’s the lie? What are they leaving out?

Well, let’s assume you own the median home, and it was one year ago. Had this issue come up then, the amount of money we all would have paid would have gone up 29.3%… in one year.

So… while I would have been paying $1.51 a year ago, THIS year, I would be paying 43.79 cents MORE. Whoops! So, all of a sudden, the cost goes to $1.9479 cents per week.

Now, the value of my own little patch of heaven here was increased $70,000… THIS year. Were that to happen the year after this tax went into effect, I would be paying an additional 70 times that $1.51 in a given year. And, because of area development and skyrocketing taxes, when it goes up another $70,000 NEXT year, that will be ANOTHER 70 times that $1.51. So, at the end of the day, I find myself forced to pay a tax that I was not allowed to vote on; an already huge increase in my property tax, and these people want me to approve a tax that could easily triple over it’s 20 year life?

Do I want to spend around $4500 on the library system…. Not including all of the OTHER taxes they’ll ask for over the years? For a library system that would rather dive into a pool of warm vomit then adequately filter porn?

No. Hell no.

The Columbian has no problem telling us that jacking our taxes further up into the stratosphere is cool. After all, they say “no” to a tax increase with the frequency of Royce Pollard refusing a tax break to his downtown taxpayer-financed redevelopment buddies.

But by now, you’re read a somewhat different perspective then the fine folks at the Columbian want you to read.

But… why doesn’t that surprise me?




In Our View: Check These Numbers
Friday, October 14, 2005
Columbian editorial writers

Here are some numbers Vancouver residents might consider before voting on the library-improvement measures on their Nov. 8 ballots, which they will be getting in the mail late next week:

42 The number of years ago the downtown Vancouver library was built at its present size. John F. Kennedy was president. Westfield Vancouver mall, Cascade Park and Interstate 205 didn't exist and the city limits didn't go as far east as the fields where they later were built.

34,000 Vancouver's population in 1963. (The county had 102,000.)

155,000 Today's Vancouver population (County: 380,000-plus). Today, the city's corporate limits include the mall and extend beyond I-205 to encompass Cascade Park.

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