At the April 21st meeting of the Burien City Council, the council received a staff recommendation for partial annexation of North Highline.

Once again the financial data provided by city staff was skewed towards annexation. The fiscal impact analysis provided as part of the study, as presented to the council, covered seven options.

The financial data as presented would lead one to believe that all of the options were relatively revenue neutral, based on operating revenue and expense.

But there was one small easily missed caveat included on the last page: "Capital costs not included."

Almost reluctantly, the city manager was able to provide a number: About $60,000,000 in capital costs would be required to cover the smallest annexation option. Two options, the no annexation option and the full annexation by Seattle option, would not call for the $60,000,000 outlay but this was not pointed out in the discussion.

When asked how these capital costs would be funded, there was hand waving about grants, gifts, and various other ways of requesting funds.

No mention was made of the request of last resort - a deep pocket tax on the residents of Burien. Assuming no agency step forth with additional funding, which is very likely given the current state of the economy, each resident of Burien may be asked to pay for their share to cover the additional cost of annexation. This could come to about $2,000 per resident.

At one time, members of the council stated that annexation would no longer be considered if the costs became financially untenable. Someone needs to remind the council of this position.

Unfortunately, the financial future of Burien regarding annexation seem to be permanently on the table, based on a moving target, never to be reconciled by any rational means (rationality is another issue).

Do residents of Burien think that annexation of North Highline is worth $2,000 out of their pocket? And that would only be the beginning.

James Sharkey

Treasurer,

Burien Residents Against Annexation