Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 327
It’s true that there is a “tax problem” on the Swinomish Indian Reservation, but it is much larger than the Great Wolf Lodge tax case that everyone has been hearing or reading about lately. For decades, the Swinomish Tribe has faced at least four separate but related tax problems that went largely unnoticed in the Town of La Conner until the impact of the Great Wolf Lodge decision that invalidated a state tax on the permanent improvements of lessees on federal trust land was felt by property owners of fee lands both here in town and on the r...
The next chapter in Swinomish carver Kevin Paul’s often cutting-edge career will be written by himself. And it’s quite a story to tell. Paul, whose carving has been featured on the Discovery Channel and a wide range of publications, is among those artists invited to contribute to “The Barn Shows: In Their Own Words,” a much-anticipated book project being compiled by Dick and LaVonne Reim of Fir Island. After being the subject of numerous scripts and articles, Paul now has the opportu...
Over 50 people, including at least 10 from greater La Conner, crowded into a room at Coconut Kenny’s last Wednesday and the free pizza and beer was the least of the draw. Home Rule Skagit organizers were rallying supporters for the election campaign to approve a charter for Skagit County. The 3,333 petition signatures they collected this year and submitted in August qualified the measure for the November ballot. Steering Committee Chair Gary Wickman told the crowd, “When it passes we will hav...
Jim Hernandez had no students aboard, but the La Conner school bus he drove Monday afternoon was filled to capacity nonetheless. With books, not students. At least for a while. His bus morphed into a local bookmobile for four fast-paced hours with stops at the Swinomish Gym and outdoor basketball courts, Shelter Bay Community Center and La Conner Regional Library. At each stop, students excitedly climbed into the bus to select from more than 3,000 donated books, a mission La Conner...
Years before moving to La Conner, I remember my first reaction upon seeing the wood-sided building painted blue with white trim on Morris, signed “La Conner Regional Library.” What a statement about quality of life here, I thought, to have a library in a small community, a safe place that is open to everyone for exploring, learning, reading, discovery and inspiration. Not only was La Conner home to three unique museums, but it had a library located near the entrance to town, close to the schools, easy to walk to and on a bus line! What I did...
If only the candidates vote in this year’s town council election, they will win. Running unopposed are incumbents John Leaver, Council Position 2, Bill Stokes, Council Position 3 and Mary Lee Chamberlain, Council Position 4. Once the La Conner School District directors vote, they, too, win. Running without opposition are Brad Smith, Director District 3, Lynette Cram, Director District 4 and John Thulen, Director District 5. The same is true for Fire District 12 and 13 commissioner positions. Doug Peterson is running unopposed for C...
A federal judge has ruled that it is legal for public agencies to collect taxes from non-Indians who lease tribal land. For three years, this newspaper has been following a lawsuit in the U.S. Central District Court of California brought by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians against Riverside County. That case closed last week when U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee ruled in favor of the county and a local water agency that joined the suit as a defendant. “The county is pleased that the court carefully balanced the issues and determined t...
Skagit Co. Sheriff’s Office Monday Feb 27 11:53 a.m.: Creeper – A report of a prowler in La Conner. 7:27 p.m.: Bad parking spot – Deputies responded after a car-owner was planning to leave their car for a few hours at theLa Conner Whitney Road roundabout after it got a flat tire. Tuesday Feb 28 8:32 p.m.: Off-leash – Two dogs were spotted running free in front of the La Conner library onMorris Street. Deputies didn’t find them. Wednesday March 1 10:54 a.m.: Oops! – An accidental911 call from a business onMorris Str...
The La Conner School Board met Monday and is expected to call for a special election in February to ask voters to approve more than $1 million in taxes to take effect in 2017. Although the board appeared to reach a consensus to ask voters to approve a maintenance and operations levy of $1,195,000 and a technology levy of $295,000, the board adjourned and continued its meeting to Thursday evening to vote. The main question left on the table on Monday was whether to seek one-year levies for 2017 or two-year levies that would expire at the end of...
La Conner property owners packed Maple Hall Thursday to hear their local representatives give them the dire news: There is no quick cure for the tax disparity that has hit La Conner harder than any other community in the state following the so-called Great Wolf Lodge decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Some 100 people missed the second half of the Seahawks game against the 49ers to hear what their school, county and town officials had to say during the meeting arranged by Mayor Ramon Hayes. For more than a year, the...
The La Conner School Board on Monday signed a proposed agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community outlining the details of the $400,000 funding contribution the tribe promised last December. For months, school and tribal officials have been negotiating the terms of the gift. School Board President Rick Thompson said he was hopeful this final deal, brokered between school and tribal attorneys, would be approved by the Swinomish Indian Senate, which is expected to consider it next month. Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby, in San Diego...
La Conner has been hounding state and federal officials, and now the governmental gears seem to be starting to budge. Last week, State Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, met with Gov. Jay Inslee to explain how a federal ruling caused La Conner area taxpayers to take a huge financial hit. It appears that a lobbying effort spurred by La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes, with added muscle from the La Conner School District, could eventually prod the federal government into bringing relief to the folks who saw their property tax bills jump by up to 25 percent...
La Conner School District and town officials are scheduled to meet today with a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, to lay the tax disparity caused by a 2013 federal court decision at the federal government’s feet. The offices of U.S. senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray have also been contacted, and their staff members have promised to schedule meetings with local officials soon. Mayor Ramon Hayes, with other partners including the school district, launched the lobbying campaign last month. This came a...
La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes has launched a town lobbying effort to address a situation that has left a fraction of the taxpayers shouldering the lion’s share of the local taxes. In January 931 parcels were removed from the La Conner area property tax rolls following a federal court ruling that structures on Indian reservation land are tax exempt regardless of who owns the structures. That means homeowners in Shelter Bay and in the Pull and Be Damned Road area who built their homes on land l...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community expects to send out tax bills to homeowners on the 931 parcels removed from the county’s property tax rolls by the end of this month. As with the county taxes homeowners are accustomed to paying, the Swinomish tribal tax can be paid in two halves on April 30 and October 31. For the 2015 taxes, the tribe intends to use the same assessment values Skagit County has set and will use the same tax rate – $14.28 per $1,000 of assessed value – as parcels on privately owned, or fee simple, land within t...
Each year Skagit County Treasurer Katie Jungquist’s office mails out property tax bills to land right around Valentine’s Day. The goal is not so much to put a damper on the day, it’s just that the schedule calls for the bills to be delivered in mid-February. But this year, the county’s “Valentines” were still at the printer on Tuesday, and Jungquist said she expects they’ll be in the mail early next week. Even so, anyone anxious to know what they’ll be paying in property taxes this year can look it up on the county’s website, www.skagitcounty.n...
Staff at the Skagit County Assessor’s Office worked through the holiday weekend to come up with the new levy rates for property taxes in the La Conner area. Under the state’s property tax calendar schedule, the levies were to be finished and provided to the County Treasurer by last Thursday, Jan. 15. But they weren’t. Removing 931 parcels from the tax rolls in the La Conner School District threw a big wrench into the system, and the Assessor’s Office had to stretch the deadline. On Tuesday, “I think we’re real close,” said County Assessor Dave...
Under its new Trust Improvement Use and Occupancy Tax Code, the Swinomish Senate has decided to adopt a policy granting tax exemptions to low-income seniors and disabled people. Most of the homes in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & Be Damned Road neighborhood were removed from the county property tax rolls on Jan. 1, as a result of a federal court ruling that determined homes build on leased tribal trust land are immune from property taxes. However, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, the sovereign government of the Swinomish Reservation, will...
With the 931 parcels coming off the La Conner area county tax rolls, taxpayers for the remaining 2,500 parcels in the La Conner School District and Fire District 13 could be left holding the bill for about $480,000 more in property taxes. On Tuesday the Swinomish Indian Senate announced the amounts it will contribute to the La Conner School District, Fire District 13, Medic 1 ambulance service and La Conner Regional Library District. Last month the Senate, which is the governing body of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, decided that the...
The end of November, which is this Sunday, is the final day for taxing districts to submit their levy requests to the Skagit County Assessor. Each year, the Assessor determines the property values, and assigns a levy rate for every $1,000 of assessed valuation for each property, collects the property taxes and passes the money through to the various agencies. In the La Conner area, this year’s deadline is charging at county, agency and tribal officials at the speed of light. Swinomish Indian Tribal Senate, La Conner School District, Fire Distri...
Although a federal court ruling made 931 La Conner area properties on tribal land exempt from county property tax, on Tuesday the Swinomish Indian Senate decided to take action preventing tax refunds to homeowners on leased tribal land. The Senate, which is the governing body for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, voted to establish an interim tax on improvements on reservation trust land that is equal to the amount assessed by the county going back to 2011. Taxpayers on those lands will receive credit for all taxes paid to the county and...
With 931 La Conner area parcels coming off the property tax rolls, people are wondering what their tax bills will look like in 2015. Homeowners in Shelter Bay and on Pull & Be Damned Road won’t be paying property tax to the county next year. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be paying for tax-supported public services. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Senate has formed a committee to work out a tribal tax code. Meanwhile, the smaller pool of people who will continue to pay their county tax bills could face big increases, unless the tribe takes actio...
Skagit County Assessor Don Munks declared that most of the homes in Shelter Bay and in the Pull and Be Damned Road neighborhood will be removed from the 2015 tax rolls. At the same time, the Swino-mish Indian Senate reached a consensus that there will be a property tax on those homes levied by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Senate established a committee to work out the details. Meanwhile, homeowners on the 931 properties coming off next year’s county tax rolls are expected to pay the second half of their 2014 taxes, which is d...
Agencies and taxpayers are nervous over the financial impacts of a federal court ruling that makes most of the properties in Shelter Bay and on Pull & Be Damned Road exempt from property taxes. If the 931 homeowners on leased tribal land decide not to pay the second half of this year’s taxes due on October 31, as some owners have suggested, the La Conner School District and Fire District 13 are going to be scrambling to fill huge budget holes. Worse, if the homeowners sue to have up to three years of property taxes refunded, the agencies and sm...
Now that the Skagit County Assessor’s Office has crunched the actual numbers, it is apparent that the federal court’s tribal land tax ruling would hit La Conner worse than originally thought. Dave Thomas with the Assessor’s Office said that if the ruling stands, there will be a total of 931 properties taken off the tax rolls with a combined value of about $138 million. That is the number and value of homes on leased tribal land in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & Be Damned neighborhood — the only area in Skagit County that the federal rulin...
