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The La Conner School Board and Swinomish Indian Senate will hold a joint meeting this Thursday to discuss tribal sovereignty curriculum. By law, since a quorum of school board members will be present, the meeting will be open to the public. It will be held at 5 p.m. in the Swinomish Senate Chambers, on Moorage Way across the street from the Village Chevron station on the reservation. Tribal sovereignty curriculum is a state recommended program, approved by Washington state tribes, to provide instruction in Native American history and culture...
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...
A recent ruling by the U.S. Department of Justice opening the door for marijuana production on native tribal reservations in states where it’s legal is something the Swinomish Indian Senate will talk about next year. The memo from the Justice Department released December 11 allows native tribes to pursue the process of growing and selling marijuana but reserves the right for federal enforcement if regulations are broken. “At the beginning of the year, there will be a discussion,” said Swinomish Tribal Chairman Brian Cladoosby. “It is on the...
Here’s a lump of coal for the old Christmas stocking: The owners of at least 2,500 parcels in the La Conner area will see their property taxes take a leap in the new year. With 931 parcels worth around $138 million coming off the 2015 property tax rolls and state laws that allow the bills to automatically shift to the remaining taxpayers when property is made tax exempt, the average La Conner area homeowner will pay around $400 more for civilization next year. On Monday, the La Conner School D...
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...
Todd Allyn Wilbur, 55, a longtime resident of Skagit County died on the Swinomish Reservation at age 55 on Monday, November 17. He was born in Pasco, Washington on November 12, 1959. He is survived by his parents, Gwynn (Jones) Amaro and Dave Wilbur, Sr. Todd graduated from Eisen-hower High School with the class of 1978 and earned his AA degree from Bellingham Technical School. In 1982 he was hired by the Swinomish Tribal Community as a wildlife game manager and worked there for 31 years....
To ease the minds of homeowners who live on tribal trust land in the La Conner area, the Swinomish Indian Senate on Tuesday announced that the property tax for 2015 will be equal to what Skagit County would assess if the property were to stay on the county tax rolls. “Taxpayers can rest assured and budget for their taxes in 2015 just as they have in the past,” Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby said in a prepared statement. Meanwhile the Tribal Senate, which is the governing body for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, continues to work on a...
Gaye Wilbur, of La Conner, died peacefully at home with her loving husband and family by her side on Tuesday, October 28. She was 74 years old. Gaye was born on October 25, 1940 to Clifford and Inez Gilbertson of Sedro-Woolley, where she was raised. She graduated from Sedro-Woolley High School in 1958 and attended Skagit Valley College for two years. Gaye married her childhood sweetheart in 1958; they were together as a couple for 61 years. They met at the skating rink in Burlington and were a premier dance skating couple. Gaye was a master...
The Swinomish Tribal Senate has pretty much put the kibosh on the possibility of tax refunds for the 931 La Conner area homeowners whose property is coming off the county tax rolls next year. What hasn’t been finalized is the level of funding the public entities who rely on those tax revenues will receive in the future and how much of the tax burden could be shifted to the remaining property owners. Under state law, people can request tax refunds for up to three years. There were five people whose buildings are on leased tribal land in S...
The Swinomish Indian Senate has adopted a formal tax code aimed at eliminating the possibility of refunds for the 931 parcels coming off the county’s tax rolls. A federal court decision exempting all structures on tribal land from property taxes opened the possibility that homeowners on leased tribal land in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & be Damned Road neighborhood could seek up to three years of property tax refunds. While the owners have never been taxed on the leased tribal land their homes sit on, the county has been assessing taxes on the...
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...
The Swinomish Tribal Senate has announced that it will adopt a property tax law that applies to leased tribal trust land. HERE IS THE TEXT OF A PRESS RELEASE ISSUED FRIDAY MORNING BY THE SWINOMISH INDIAN TRIBAL COMMUNITY The Swinomish Indian Senate, the governing body of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, has established a working group of Tribal Senators and staff to develop a property tax law that would apply to leased trust land within the Swinomish Reservation. The property tax would be considered for adoption as Tribal law by the...
With 931 parcels coming off the county’s property tax rolls next year, the financial state of the La Conner School District and Fire District 13 and hundreds of taxpayers rest in the hands of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senate. On Tuesday, the Skagit County Board of Commissioners essentially directed County Assessor Don Munks “not to break the law,” in the words of Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt. To that end, Munks said his office has removed from the county’s 2015 tax rolls all homes and other structures that were built on leased...
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...
The federal court ruling that made at least 1,000 La Conner area homes exempt from property taxes is in the hands of lawyers. County officials have said the affected properties will be removed from the 2015 tax rolls. Meanwhile, the county is advising residents whose homes are on leased tribal land to pay their taxes this year, “until we get this sorted out,” said RC Cavazos, chief deputy with the Skagit County Assessor’s office. The second half of the 2014 property tax is due Oct. 31. The move stems from a United States Court of Appeals for t...
Skagit County government officials are scrambling to figure out how to deal with a huge cut in tax revenue resulting from a federal court ruling that eliminates property tax for every building on tribal land. That means most of the approximately 900 homes in Shelter Bay, a gated community built on leased land that the federal government holds in trust for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, are now exempt from property taxes. Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen said buildings on tribal land will be removed from the 2015 tax rolls. In the...
The recent “La Conner Weekly News” article on the history of the Swinomish Channel has prompted a more complex story of the channel’s alterations over time. The Swinomish Slough, first called the Canim (canoe) Passage by newcomers to the area in the 1850s, was a narrow, winding waterway, so shallow that during the summertime, farmers waded their horses through it to obtain fresh drinking water from springs on the Swinomish Reservation. In 1893, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the sloug...
Monday March 3 10:04 a.m.: Boat grounded – A sailboat got stuck in shallow water nearGoat Island as the tide was going out. They captain was contacted by radio and said they were fine, and would wait for the tide to come back in and free them. Tuesday March 4 5:48 a.m.: Arrest – A person in La Conner called aCalifornia law enforcement agency and seemed confused, so they alerted the local Sheriff’s office to go check on him. Deputies would up arresting him on two outstanding warrants from Skagit Count District Court. 6:18 p.m.: O...
Chester Cayou, Jr. and Brian Wilbur were each re-elected to five-year terms on the 11-member Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senate. In an election held Sunday, Cayou garnered 135 votes, with his challenger, La Conner School Board President Janie Beasley, coming in a close second with 118. Wilbur, who was challenged by Theodore Edge, Sr., won re-election to his position 183 to 71. Shelly Roberts, executive assistant with the tribal government, said the Swinomish Senate consists of 11 members, whose terms are staggered so that elections are...
Seahawk Richard Sherman’s wild post-game rant ruffled the feathers of some pro football fans across the country. Nor did it help that a couple misguided fans among a capacity Century Link Stadium crowd choose to pelt San Francisco standout NoVorro Bowman with food while he was being carted off the field after sustaining an injury in the second half of Seattle’s intense 23-17 confer-ence title win over the 49ers. Fortunately, a La Conner man had already gone the extra mile — and then some — to help mend fences with National Foo...
The 2,932 registered voters in Fire District 13 have a choice that could change the tone and dynamics of their fire protection agency’s governing board. Election years in Fire District 13 are notoriously volatile, and this election has been no exception as appointed incumbent Jim Grove of Anacortes faces a challenge by La Conner farmer Arne Fohn. The gloves came off last summer, when Grove sent a letter to the Swinomish Tribal Senate taking issue with the number of signs supporting Fohn on reservation land. The newest sign saga concerns the one...
