City line confusion leads to tax reversal
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
At least one area resident lives so close to the city limits that she can set foot within them from her home.
Her home itself, however, lies outside the limits. That fact saved her a few hundred dollars.
"I got a letter on Friday the 13th [of November]," says Brenda Duggan, "from Klickitat PUD, saying I owed back city taxes." The letter was one of about 20 that the utility recently sent to area residents after the city of Goldendale completed a review of its boundaries and determined that some properties that had previously been regarded as outside the city were now actually within it. The PUD soon thereafter assessed back city taxes on its energy bills to these people, retroactive to three years. Some residents were hit with multiple hundreds of dollars in unpaid city taxes.
"Your service was billed as a rural customer," PUD's letter to Duggan stated, "when in fact we should have been billing you as a customer within the city limits. This means that your electric bill should have included a six percent utility tax from the first day of service at your current address." The letter went on to indicate that PUD talked the matter over with the city, and the city's direction to the utility was to back bill customers for no farther back than three years. Duggan's bill showed a due date for her back taxes of Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving.
Duggan knew she could not be one of those to be back billed. The challenge was to prove it.
She went to city hall and requested a map of the city limits. According to Duggan, one could not be found at the time. City Administrator Larry Bellamy, who was not there when Duggan visited, says that would have been very strange. "There's a city map right there," he says. "I look at it every day." Duggan was eventually able to establish that the property on which she resides has a front edge that comes squarely up to the city line-but the property itself is outside the limits.
"The whole thing was strange," Duggan says. "The city couldn't make out its own limits. And why would PUD send out a letter like that just before the holidays? Their timing was very bad."
City is awarded state investment funds
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
The Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) last week announced $3.3 million in public investments targeting job creation and business growth in Klickitat, Yakima, Asotin, and Lincoln counties.
"Strategic infrastructure investments like these help strengthen the partnership between business and government, leading to job creation and economic development," said Gov. Chris Gregoire. "These projects will benefit rural communities in Washington at a time when it is needed most."
Since 1982, CERB has committed more than $144 million to counties across the state, an investment generating nearly 36,000 jobs. The board approved the following projects at last Thursday's meeting:
• Klickitat County - $25,000 grant to the City of Goldendale for a study to determine the feasibility of constructing and managing a publicly-owned incubator in support of growing alternative energy producing wind farms, vineyards and wineries, and other businesses. CERB funds are matched by $16,000 in local funds. (A business incubator is a program designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial enterprises through the support of business resources and services.)
• Yakima County - $275,000 loan to the Port of Sunnyside for infrastructure construction in the Midvale Rail Industrial Park providing access and infrastructure for the relocation of an existing business from downtown Sunnyside. The project would also provide access to two, 2-acre site-ready lots in the park. As a result of this project, 5.3 jobs are expected to be created. The project is matched by $275,000 in local funds.
• Asotin County - $1 million in loans and grants to the Port of Clarkston for infrastructure for Phase I of an industrial park. As a result of this project, 55 jobs are expected to be created. The project will allow the port to provide shovel-ready parcels in the industrial park.
• Lincoln County - $2 million in loans and grants to the Odessa Public Development Authority for infrastructure at the Barr Regional Bio-Industrial Park to accommodate the building and utility needs of a manufacturing plant for biochemicals made from organic agricultural waste. As a result of the project, 71.5 jobs are expected to be created. CERB funds are matched by $200,000 in local funds.
"Tools like CERB help Washington businesses succeed, supporting jobs and helping our state stay competitive even during tough economic times," said Rogers Weed, director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. "CERB's dedication to helping communities around Washington is vital to our state's economy."
As Washington's strategic economic development resource, CERB is focused on creating private sector jobs in partnership with local governments by financing infrastructure improvements. These improvements encourage new business development and expansion. In addition to funding construction projects, CERB provides limited funding for studies that evaluate high-priority economic development projects. Learn more about CERB at www.commerce.wa.gov/cerb.
The release of CERB funds to these projects is contingent upon each applicant completing specific pre-contract requirements, such as finalizing other funding sources and obtaining necessary permits.
CERB receives management services from the Washington State Department of Commerce. For more information on the Department of Commerce, visit www.commerce.wa.gov.
Hometown Heroes at IGA gives boost to hunger action month
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Hometown Heroes and Gorge-wide Hunger Action Month are partnering to boost food stocks for area families.
Hometown Heroes is an IGA program. IGA will match $10 donations with a $20 value bag of groceries donated to the food bank in Goldendale. The bag includes a can of green beans, macaroni and cheese, two pounds of spaghetti, corn flakes, peanut butter and five pounds of flour.
The Gorge-wide program also has barrels for donations at Holcomb's Sentry Supermarket, Columbia River Bank, Sterling Savings Bank, the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce, and Goldendale City Hall.
More than 500 pounds of food has been donated to the Goldendale food bank. |
