Proposed City of Sammamish- Proposition No. 1

BALLOT TITLE
PROPOSITION NO. 1
Shall the area of unincorporated King County commonly known as Sammamish and legally described in King County Ordinance No. 13258 be incorporated as a non-charter code city under a council-manager plan of government?

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT:
If Proposition No. 1 is approved by a majority of the voters, the area of unincorporated King County commonly known as Sammamish would be incoporated as a non-charter code city.
If approved, Sammamish would officially become an incorporated city at a date from 180 to 360 days following the election on the question of incoporation. The city would have a council-manager plan of government, consisting of an elected city council and a city manager appointed by the city council. The city manager would serve as the city's chief executive officer and head of the administrative branch of city government.

STATEMENT FOR
THE TIME TO INCORPORATE IS NOW!
Are you tired of traffic jams? Are you saddened by our trees being cut down to make room for high density development? Are you angry at politicians (who have never been our area) making decisions for us?
If you answered "YES," then vote for INCORPORATION and take charge of our future!
ROADS AND TRAFFIC CONGESTION — We suffer from a dense urban population using rural roads/infrastructure. Our children’s safety depends on exercising local control to improve this situation. We can do a better job!
PARKS AND GREEN SPACES — Unbridled growth has squeezed out opportunities for parks, recreation, community centers and other facilities. More delay will destroy forever our hopes to save open space for our children. We must act now to improve our quality of life.
KEEPING OUR TAX DOLLARS AT HOME — We are not getting our money’s worth for our tax dollars. Our money is siphoned for other people’s use, while we have urgent infrastructure and service needs right here at home. Incorporation gives us the tools to manage and direct our money so we can make our own choices and have local fiscal control.
LOCAL CONTROL OF GROWTH AND AESTHETIC STANDARDS — King County designated the East Sammamish community as an urban growth area. A drive down 228th reveals the devastating impact of explosive growth. Although everyone agrees that some growth must be accepted, local control by our own city council will better determine how, when, and where this growth will go and what it will look like.
NO EFFECT ON THE SCHOOL OR FIRE DISTRICTS, ETC. — Don’t believe hysterical predictions! Our excellent Fire and School services shall continue at their high level under incorporation.
BETTER POLICE PROTECTION — Incorporation means better response times and more police dedicated to the Plateau. Competitive bidding by neighboring jurisdictions will ensure that we get the best police protection for the money.
STUDY SHOWS INCORPORATION FEASIBLE — The State contracted a respected consulting firm to conduct a one year feasibility study. The study concluded that the proposed City of Sammamish is economically viable and would produce a $7 million tax surplus, given current service standards! This surplus could be put to good community use or to reduce taxes.
We have limited options and doing nothing is not one of them! Eventually our community will be annexed by Issaquah and Redmond if we do not vote for incorporation now. Remaining in King County will make the Plateau a small part of an ever shrinking unincorporated area fighting over increasingly scarce resources. The clear trend is toward incorporation of new cities in King County.
INCORPORATION MAKES SENSE for us now as it has for many other communities before us.
TAKE CHARGE OF OUR FUTURE. VOTE YES ON INCORPORATION!

REBUTTAL OF STATEMENT AGAINST
DON’T BE MISLED...CONSIDER THE FACTS:
EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT - King County failed us by not managing development, roads and services. The proposed city will NOT be another layer of government but rather, a new government representing OUR local values and priorities.
TAXES - The feasibility study shows a 7 million dollar SURPLUS. Past incorporations have shown, as does our own feasibility study that taxes WILL NOT increase!

STATEMENT PREPARED BY: KAREN MORAN, TOM HARMAN, BARRY ROSE

STATEMENT AGAINST
THE CHOICE: Create a new City or stay in King County.
WHO BENEFITS: Citizens will gain multiple new restrictions, small town politics, more taxes for capital improvements, and another layer of government. King County will lose millions in tax revenues.
TAXES: Tax increases are inevitable. Wages for police, one officer for every 1600 people population last count was 26 to 27 thousand, and estimated growth another 10 to 12 thousand building permits approved, with an average of three and a half people per home. Park superintendent with at least three workers to start. Roads foreman with another six or seven people as workers. Mayor, council persons, city manager, secretaries. We can go on forever. Wages for all these people will be close to 3 million per year. Then we need equipment patrol cars, trucks, graders, backhoes, etc. there we are talking another few million. Then we need land for a city hall, jail, city sheds for maintenance of equipment plus storage of equipment. If we’re lucky we may get the land for around three quarters of a million dollars. Then the building we are talking in the millions.
A city can impose utility, business and occupation taxes along with taxes on electricity, gas, water, garbage, and cable TV. Whereas the county can’t.
A $200,000 home on the plateau now pays King County $373.90 for it doesn’t say I guess the joy of living in King County. Which it doesn’t look like will go away even if a new city come to past. $348.88 for unincorporated roads. I don’t see where The millions of these road dollars have been spent here where they came from for the past who knows how many years. Now we have Library???? $111.26 and then $99.02 in other charges. What other charges print them out or is that for slush funds. We know that there is no $200,000 homes left on the plateau according to the county assessor so look at your tax statements and figure out what you pay.
How much money that is now paid into King County will actually come back to start a new city??? Newcastle a new city in the past two years in the Issaquah School district now has the highest tax base in the state.
We also will be having two different school districts in the same little area. So we have double the administration costs. Whereas if it went into one district we would have more money for more teachers so there would be less students per teacher.
All this boils down to just one thing neither a New City nor King County the way it is run will ever help us. We need a NEW COUNTY, where the whole government is out here and not in downtown Seattle.

REBUTTAL OF STATEMENT FOR
Proponents Rave Excessive Growth and Inadequacies.
Feasibility study requires, services as they exist, continuation of present growth.
Proponents would increase service costs, decrease growth income. Taxes would soar.
County proposes $18,000,000 improvements to 228th. Can be lost by incorporation.
Proponents say weak sales tax base will bring Sales Tax Equalization over $2,000,000.
Feasibility Study says "IT’S NOT SIMPLE FORECASTING —EQUALIZATION—."
COULD BE VOTED OUT ANYTIME.
Actual studies show costs after incorporation always exceed projected costs.

STATEMENT PREPARED BY: URBAN MASSET

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