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PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles City Council has passed two property tax levy increases to go towards next year’s budget.

This week, the council unanimously agreed to raise property taxes by one percent as allowed under state law each year. They also agreed to levying an additional 10 cents per every $1,000 of assessed value, for the fireman’s pension.

The decision came after the council held a public hearing, where residents like Matthew Rainwater expressed concerns about raising taxes right now.

“In this time of inflation and high gas prices, especially knowing that the gas price is going to increase an estimated 46 cents, to give the citizens of this city a break for one year. Don’t vote to raise their taxes,” said Rainwater.

But Councilmember Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin said, the city can’t afford not to take the increases.

“If we don’t authorize this; basically a third of our outside funding for the general fund, which pays for police which pays for fire, which pays for streets which pays for parks and rec, a third of that does not increase with the cost of providing those services. So it’s really important that we keep up. And structurally as a city, when we can only increase our revenue by one percent but as everyone acknowledged cost for us are going up way higher than 1%, then we have a structural defecit in our budget. And that’s a huge issue that needs to be addressed,” said Schromen-Wawrin.

The annual one percent increase will bring in about $50,000. The added fireman’s pension will bring another $245,000, however the revenue collected must offset Firemen’s Pension costs and/or medical expenses and it sunsets in 10 years.