So the Burien City Council and the Burien city manager are trying to level the annexation playing field by trying to prevent Seattle from obtaining any of the tax credits to offset the costs of service to newly annexed areas. That is really trying to tip the field in the direction of Burien.

We are talking about laying a deficit of roughly one third to one half of the 2007 Burien city budget on the residents of Burien. For some reason the administration of Burien thinks this is a splendid idea.

If the Burien City Council and the Burien city manager really wanted to level the playing field, they would be requesting a change in the state law that now prohibits the residents of a city that is doing the annexing from voting on the annexation. When the law was passed, I do not believe the lawmakers envisioned a situation where the area to be annexed was running a deficit in the order of $5-7 million. We elected the council to run the city, not to acquire a debt of such a magnitude without any input from the citizens.

Right now the residents of Burien might as well let the city council write a blank check for the costs and expect the residents to pick up the tab without a word.

James Sharkey

Treasurer, Burien Citizens

Against Annexation