Real estate sales give LV leg up on projects
Saturday, December 18, 2004 11:53 PM PST
By Tony Lystra
Printable version
E-mail this articleA recent boom in real estate sales will help Longview officials take on an ambitious schedule of capital projects, including installation of a new sprinkler system at Lake Sacajawea.
Although the city's operating revenues remain largely flat, income from real estate excise taxes has increased by nearly a third in the current budget cycle, officials said. State law dictates that the funds can only be used to upgrade the city's infrastructure.
In the 2003-2004 biennium, the city had garnered $540,348 in real estate revenues through November, a 28 percent increase over collections in 2001-2002, when the tax yielded $387,275.
Next year, the city will spend $50,000 to upgrade the irrigation system at Lake Sacajawea, where much of the grass turns brown in the summer for lack of water. The city has wanted to install an updated system at the lake for more than a decade.
In 1992, for example, voters soundly rejected an $8.6 million bond that, among other projects, would have raised $848,000 for sprinkler systems at the lake and Seventh Avenue Park.
Also next year, the city will spend $35,000 for improvements at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts; $125,000 to replace an irrigation pump station at the city-owned Mint Valley Golf Course; $7,000 to improve security in the evidence room at the police station; $8,000 to replenish grass-eating carp in Lake Sacajawea; $40,000 to repave City Hall parking lots and $16,000 to replace a stairway and landing in City Hall's annex building.
In 2006, officials plan to spend $30,000 to expand the women's locker room at the police station; $110,000 to replace an elevator at the library; and $48,000 to remodel a racquet ball court into offices and a fitness area at one of the city's fire stations.
In all, these and other projects will cost the city nearly $800,000 over two years.
The improvements come as officials expect to tap $1.2 million of the city's reserves during the next two years to balance the city's 2005-2006, $50.7 million operating budget.
"We all agree that the projects that were funded, they need to be completed," said Mayor Mark McCrady. "The state was wise to limit the uses of (real estate excise tax) funds so that they could not be diverted into the general fund during hard times. They force you to take care of your capital needs by limiting the way the money can be used."
The windfall in capital improvement monies was largely the result of an active real estate market sparked by low interest rates on home mortgages, said Kurt Sacha, the city's finance director. Last year's sale of the Triangle Mall to Texas developer P.O'B. Montgomery boosted the revenues as well, Sacha said.
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