Email This   Larger Font      Print This   Smaller Font Advertisement   Update Previously: In November 2006, the Vancouver City Council adopted a $50-per-employee annual business surcharge, capped at a maximum of $20,000 per company, and abandoned discussions of reinstituting a local business and occupation tax. What’s new: Council members last week heard gloomy reports from Police Chief Cliff Cook and Fire Chief Don Bivins on what cuts they would make in public safety to help close a projected $6 million budget shortfall for 2009-10. What’s next: Council members will hear a preliminary revenue and expenditure forecast for 2009-10 on May 19.

Monday, May 12, 2008
By Jeffrey Mize, Columbian Staff Writer

Vancouver might jack up taxes on sewer, water and drainage to prevent major spending cuts in police and fire.

The city currently tacks a 16 percent tax onto each of those services when it sends out utility bills. Increasing each to 20 percent would net an estimated $2.4 million annually.

Raising those utility taxes is one of the few options open to the city that do not require voter approval. Vancouver’s taxes on electricity, natural gas and telephone already are at 6 percent and cannot be raised without a public vote.

City council members heard a gloomy report Friday on what cuts police and fire could make because of a projected $6 million budget deficit for the 2009-10 biennium.

Police Chief Cliff Cook rattled off a list of cuts he would make, gutting many specialty programs and concentrating officers on patrol, the department’s core mission to respond to emergencies.

Cook said he would cut 11 officer positions —eight that are currently vacant plus three officers who would be laid off  —along with 13 civilian employees, of which only three spots are vacant.

Some of the cuts outlined by Cook include:

— No school resource officer for the Vancouver Public Schools or participation in a metro gang task force.

— Reassign all three officers assigned now to the Career Criminal Apprehension Team.

— Reassign two of the four officers on neighborhood response teams.

— Reassign three of seven detectives working on property crimes.

— Reassign two of three drug task force detectives.

Fire Chief Don Bivins said his department would cancel plans to build Fire Station 810 at Northeast 164th Avenue and 15th Street, near the southwest corner of Pacific Community Park.

The city already has budgeted to build the station and hire 13 firefighters in 2009. If the department is hit with a budget cut, it would not hire those firefighters and shift the construction dollars to relocate and rebuild Station 86 at 400 E. 37th St.

In 2010, the fire department would eliminate the medical response vehicle assigned to Station 89, 17408 S.E. 15th St., and lay off six paramedics, Bivins said.

Council members didn’t seem willing to make those cuts in public safety.

“I think the basic reason for having a city is public safety,” Councilwoman Pat Jollota said.

Vancouver has struggled to balance its budget for most of this decade. It has approved a series of fee increases and bumped up the sales tax to the maximum 1 percent (the full sales tax is 8.2 percent in Vancouver) in August 2005.

But it also has made significant cuts to parks and other programs, as a way to shield police and fire from the budget ax.

Councilwoman Jeanne Harris said the council needs to consider all options, including utility, motor vehicle and business and occupation taxes.

“Don’t paint me as someone who loves taxes,” Harris said. “But I also believe we have a responsibility to collect a fair price for the services provided.”

In 2006, the council appeared ready to reimpose a city business and occupation tax, which had been phased out over a 10-year period beginning in the early 1990s. But the council’s political will quickly faded in the face of a concerted lobbying effort by the business community.