What's an MPD and why is one needed?What is it?An MPD is a "junior taxing district" funded by property tax. According to state law as amended in 2002 an MPD can now be formed even by unincorporated areas like Kingston. Why would we need an MPD? 1) County Parks budget outlook, along with the rest of the County budget, is pretty grim. They're spending less and less in Kingston (no funds were provided for a portable toilet or maintenance at Arness Park this summer). 2) We have no other taxing authority, as an unincorporated area. The Port of Kingston does have taxing authority, but regards its mission as maintenance of the waterfront and contributing to economic development of the Port District. 3) Rents and building-use fees cannot alone support the operation and maintenance of the new facility, or it will not be accessible for those who need to use its services and amenities. Who's in it? The Board of the Village Green Foundation looked hard at who uses the present facility. People using the community center, library, and senior center live as far away as Hansville, Indianola, and Eglon. However, those communities have multi-use facilities close at hand, and Hansville and Eglon have easy access to the Little Boston library. Why Miller Bay Estates? Our thinking about Miller Bay estates was guided by the expanded service reach of the replacement facility. An important part of the new building's features will be the multi-purpose space that will be a permanent home for our Boys & Girls Club, but which will be usable by all community members during non-Boys & Girls Club hours. Miller Bay Estates kids go to Kingston schools. That's important in part of the prominence of our Boys & Girls club as a feature of the new facility, and the Kingston bus routes will figure in kids being transported to the Boys & Girls Club after school. How much will it cost? If the ballot measure passes, the MPD would be authorized to levy up to 75 cents per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. But that's not what we want: We want an MPD to be a source of revenue to make the building fees and rentals affordable, and by our calculation that would take up to 15 cents per thousand. For the average home value in Kingston, that would amount to $50 per year. How will you guarantee that the cost won't be more?The Village Green Foundation Board has a lot of collective experience budgeting and managing resources. You could have both direct and indirect roles in keeping the cost low. The MPD will be governed by five commissioners, who have to live within the District boundaries. They must be elected on the same ballot where the District itself is approved. Those five people are your indirect influence: You only elect commissioners who will exercise responsible cost management and will commit to keeping the District budget reasonable. That's the only way of guaranteeing that the MPD doesn't tax and spend more than intended. You could have direct influence over that if you were elected to be one of the five Commissioners yourself! What was the petition campaign all about?There are two ways to get the MPD formation onto a ballot question: Either 1) our County Commissioners (currently Steve Bauer, Josh Brown, and Charlotte Garrido) vote to create a ballot measure, or 2)15% of registered voters within the proposed District boundaries sign a petition in favor of a ballot measure for the proposed District. On advice from Bainbridge Island and Gig Harbor people experienced in MPD formation, we opted for the petition method. It gave us a chance to talk broadly about the MPD and ensure that there's support for its formation. What was the result of the petition campaign? We turned in about 1,275 signatures to the Kitsap County Auditor's office on February 17, 2010. They were certified sufficient by that office two weeks later. That meant it was up to the Kitsap County Boundary Review Board to consider our Notice of Intention to form the Village Green Metropolitan Park District. No bodies that had potentially conflicting boundaries invoked jurisdiction by April 2, 2010, and our application was deemed approved.
Here's an excerpt from the Washington law about creating the ballot measure: If a majority of the voters voting on the ballot proposition
authorizing the creation of the metropolitan park district vote in
favor of the formation of a metropolitan park district, the
metropolitan park district shall be created as a municipal corporation
effective immediately upon certification of the election results and
its name shall be that designated in the ballot proposition. (RCW
35.61.040) RCW 35.61 What about the MPD Commissioners? Potential MPD Commissioners must be elected on the same ballot
measure as the District formation. Candidates must declare themselves
during the week of June 7 to June 11, 2010. We are inviting anyone who
wants more information about the MPD and about being an MPD
Commissioners, please come to the Kingston Community Center Indianola
Room on one of the following dates: If the MPD were formed, would it have an impact on the Fire District? |
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