Yes, it’s still a matter of trust.
I recently received the notice from the Northshore Utility District informing us of our rate change. I also remember that the Kirkland City Council couldn’t garner enough votes to do an annexation with assumption of debt, so they resorted an annexation without it.
Yet it appears that they are finding ways to turn the annexed area into the “cash cow” that many of us felt we would be used for. Higher costs, a closing of the fire station in Kingsgate and the list seems to continue growing.
In the notice from Northshore it explains the cities’ franchise system that the city chose to use instead of just levying the utility tax like they do for all other Kirkland residents.
We knew we were getting higher rates for exactly the same service and that Kirkland was getting the $200,000 influx of cash from Northshore.
But now there is a new twist.
Originally it was expected by Northshore that the city would use a franchise rate of 10.5 percent, which would be the same as what is used in the utility tax for all other pre-annexation residents.
No, the city chose to use their existing structure that applies an additional 2.34 percent resulting in essentially a tax of 12.84 percent. This will certainly result in a higher amount to the city than the $200,000 originally announced.
So there are now two classes of Kirkland citizens: The pre-annexation ones and the post-annexation ones? What happened to equal treatment promised?
Once again the Kirkland City government has shown that it cannot be trusted. Since 1991 I have watched the efforts to transform Kirkland from a really nice little town into Washington’s version of Sausalito, Calif. with its same problems and the same attitude to the taxpayers.
There is an election coming up. The existing council membership has lost all credibility and accountability. It needs to be fully cleaned out and new accountable people put in who are ethical, fiscally responsible and who actually understand who their real employers are.
Bill Webb, Kirkland
