01/27/2007: "Response to Gordy's Response"

To the Editor:

I don't know why I should be surprised to agree with much of what Gordy Petersen says (see Gordy Response To Farming Editorial)--especially when his tongue is not in his cheek, but one sentence in his most recent letter to the editor in regard to agricultural land left me with my mouth agape. He says, "Therefore the cost of services has remained relatively stable while the assessment base has increased exponentially."

Huh? My assessment is that the cost of "services" in this county has grown significantly, and in some measure attributable to our county government being able to tap into the new construction values which allow spending to increase more than the 1% provided for without voter approval.

Now I assume Gordy is a thinking man and based on his previous writings he probably didn't really mean to say it quite that way anyway. But I just can't let that pass and leave an unsuspecting public with the impression that the total cost of our government "services" has remained relatively stable.

Dan Zaehring
Friday Harbor

(Gordy responds: "I did not mean to infer that cost of services has not increased. The latest assessments average somewhere between a 40-50% increase, while the tax rate per thousand dollars of assessed value declined once again for 2007. The cost of services such as sheriff, fire, schools, roads, etc. have increased by the allowable 1% more or less, that is, they have not increased at the pace of assessed valuations for residential development. The budgets for services have remained stable in comparison with property assessments. I'm sorry if that was not clear")