The City of Snohomish City Council has voted to increase water rates by over 340% over the next 5 years.

The city, which has a population of just 10,000 people, is facing significant infrastructure improvement costs. However, instead of focusing on essential city services, city leaders opted to build a new $62 million dollar city campus. This equates to a cost of over $14,500 per houshold in the city. While some funds cannot be co-mingled between water and general monies, spending such a large amount of money on a city facility on one hand while on the other tripling water rates, sends a poor message to the residents of the city.

The increase comes shortly after the City Council attempted to imposed a mandatory $20,000 (minimum) fee for affordable housing to connect to city services. Thankfully, the council reversed position on the connection fee after an outcry from the citizens.

The city plans to sell several owned properties, including the existing public works building, engineering team building and some other buildings that are leased to local businesses. The sale of these properties, estimated to raise about $4.65 million, will be applied to the cost of the new city campus that is projected to cost $62 million dollars. The property sale represents less than 3% of the cost of the new city campus. The rest of the money will need to be raised through municipal bonds and grants, all repayable by the taxpayer.

For a city that is facing an aging water, sewer and storm water system that desperately needs investment, prioritizing an expansion of city facilities, that provide no meaningful additional services, is a poor use of public tax dollars. City leaders, including current City Councilmember Karen Kuzak who voted for the water rate increases, have known since 2010 that the sewer and water infrastructure was in need of improvement but has made little progress to correct the situation. The new city campus also adds an additional $4 million in costs to correcting the water supply issue according to the city’s comprehensive plan.

City leaders need to reconsider their service priorities and focus on fixing and maintaining the critical city infrastructure and reevaluate the need for a new, expansive civic campus.