My Grandfather used to say it didn't matter how high your IQ was if you didn't use "horse" sense or what we would call "common sense." I ask the Burien City Council to step back from this complicated annexation issue and use COMMON SENSE when making their decision.
Does it make sense for a small young city, like Burien, to take on the operating and capital costs of 10,000-20,000 more people?
Especially when they run $7 million in debt every year.
The North Highline Governance study projects no revenue for years to come.
The 10-year sales tax subsidy may be tempting in the short term but could lead to Burien's bankruptcy in the long term. None of the other revenue sources are definite.
Does it make sense when the police tell us it will cost more to NOT ANNEX when North Highline has over $9 million a year in police-related costs?
Does it make sense when the police say it will be a $2.2 million overrun with no annexation and the same $2.2 million overrun with partial annexation?
How could adding 10,000-15,000 more people and approximately 1,500 more offenses cost the same as not adding any more people or crime?
Common sense would tell you that their budget number for no annexation is high or that their budget number for partial annexation is low.
Out of 23 cities with a similar population, only two don't have their own police force. Perhaps this is an opportunity to reassess having our own force, perhaps at a more economical cost.
Perhaps this is a time to more carefully scrutinize how taxpayer money is being spent on fire and police. Just as we have to scrutinize our own home budgets.
Does it make good fiscal sense to ask Burien's taxpayers to buy a new fire station for over a million dollars when there will be two functioning firehouses a few blocks away in North Highline? Especially when Seattle's mayor has indicated they will explore interlocal cooperation?
Seattle is a large, established city offering to take care of North Highline. They have the breadth and depth of services and money to give our neighbors to the north what they deserve. They have $3 million in their budget for human services while Burien shows none.
It's time to step back and make a common sense decision of NO ANNEXATION, to work cooperatively with adjacent cities to ensure our service levels stay the same and that the historical neighborhood boundaries to the north are folded protectively under Seattle's bigger and stronger wings.
Kathy Parker
Burien
