San Juan County, Washington -- Community Conversation

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Conversation #4 - Priorities of Government

1) To achieve our Quality of Life vision, where would you increase or decrease current County services?

2) Growing the economy to broaden the tax base will take years. Meanwhile, costs continue to rise faster than the 1% increase allowed in County property tax revenue. Should property taxes and services they support be increased, decreased, or kept the same, and why?

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meg Apr 25 2013 7:35PM Until our local economy returns to "normal", taxes should most certainly NOT be increased. Belt tightening across the board for government just like we citizens must do. To spend government money more efficiently, wasting money, duplication of departments, and non-productive positions (and "workers")should be curtailed. San Juan County has a marvelous track record for already protecting its land and waters; the CAO and other expensive extraneous cumbersome protection laws should not exist.

joy Apr 17 2013 6:30PM The county can save money by powering their facilities with community owned renewables, purchasing power from a group of individual investors ("crowdfunding"). My organization has received a pledge of $2500 in matching funds from a local donor to help get this process started for county facilities, fire stations, schools, and churches. http://solargardens.org

jmalderton Apr 16 2013 3:25PM The CAO should be simplified so that it is effective for protecting Critical Areas. Simple "dumb" buffers are actually smart, if they are not punched full of holes by "uses" that degrade buffer function. The adopted CAO is expensive for landowners and tax payers, ineffective in protecting Critical Areas, and impossible to enforce because of its complexity.

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