I am a fearmonger. This is because at a recent meeting that Council Member [Dave] Asher and I attended I questioned the fact that although we are being sold on the Metropolitan Park District (MPD) as a means to fund the ARC, we are actually authorizing the ability to increase taxes by three times the amount needed.

The MPD by definition can tax property owners up to a rate of 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. There is no law that you have to use the whole 75 cents and indeed Kirkland has stated that the ARC would only require about a 25 cents per $1,000 tax and that this would cost the average Kirkland homeowner about $108 per year.

If the city of Kirkland had left this MPD as they are advertising to fund the ARC, I would have no problem with it. It would be a great tool to use for a project such as this. However, not wanting to give up 50 cents worth of taxing ability, the Kirkland City Council added wording to ordinance O-4485 to allow taxes to be collected using this MPD for “other future parks and recreational facilities and programs.” Essentially sticking another forever Parks Levy on the back of the ARC Center funding.

You will not see this fact advertised in the Arc information flyer from the Kirkland Parks Department or in the name of the MPD which Kirkland calls the “Kirkland Aquatics and Recreation District.”

If Mr. Asher can use words like “fear mongering,” I guess I can use a word like “deceptive.”

Jim Boril, Kirkland