"Port of Seattle CEO Yoshitani to get 9% pay raise"
Commissioners Tom Albro, Bill Bryant and Rob Holland voted for the raise. Commissioners John Creighton and Gael Tarleton voted against it.
Of course the Commissioners say that the Port will benefit from Yoshitani's continued leadership.
But in this economy where 9% is the typical unemployment rate, not the typical raise, it doesn't smell right and I think a lot of voters will see it that way.
Would his raise be a good business decision for the Port if it were a regular business? I don't know and I don't care.
What I do know is that the already unjustifiable property tax that I pay to subsidize the Port went up by 3%, even though my property value did not go up. From my perspective as a taxpayer, the Port's performance is only getting worse, not better.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 01, 2011 09:27 PM | Email ThisThanks Stefan!
How the Port manages to convince the electorate here that a business with $3 bn. in assets should receive rather than provide taxpayer help is beyond me.
I think the taxpayers have been paying the Port for so long (think Otis Redding here) that they can't imagine any other arrangement.
I lost a little bit of hope when they voted out Alec Fisken.
But keep up the good fight, Stefan.
Best
new left conservative
More to the point, the property tax that I pay to the Port in 2011 is more than 3% higher than what I paid in 2010, even though my assessed value is the same (and true market value, I believe, has gone down). That's an incontrovertible fact.
Second, if the Port is "generating jobs and strong revenues" that's a wonderful thing. But as long as it picks my pockets to stay in business, then it's a net drain. Its managers don't deserve raises and bonuses until they figure out how to end the property tax subsidy.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on March 1, 2011 10:42 PMSigh.
So... when does the recall start?
Posted by: hinton on March 2, 2011 12:28 AMAnyway, you can thank the REPUBLICAN members of the Port Commission for voting to have this unjustified increase.
Posted by: Richard Pope on March 2, 2011 12:51 AMMore than 5,000 jobs have been created due to >Port public works projects in the past 3 years
So basically, the Port of Seattle is just serving as a jobs bank?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on March 2, 2011 03:58 AMIn 2011, the only reward you need for doing a great job, perhaps the most fantastic job known to Man In The Western World is to keep your job.
No other reward in the midst of this high unemployment is required... or necessary.
And Pope... that the GOP in King County can be morons is not a shock. Party affiliation is no warranty of non-stupidity.
This is the wrong raise, at the wrong time, for a government worker... and these people, regardless of their party affiliation, should be recalled and tossed out asap. They obviously have no concept of reality.
This guy may be the best in the world at what he does. But others, about as good, would do his job for much less money. And that's the crux of the matter.
Posted by: hinton on March 2, 2011 08:05 AMIn 2011, the Port is collecting $73.5MM, with a "millage" rate of $0.2235. So, for each $100,000 in property, a taxpayer pays $22.35.
What's very interesting in looking over this report is how the Port has hidden the millage rate for 2010. They have many other prior years, but not the 2010 rate.
http://www.portseattle.org/downloads/about/2011_Budget_14_Tax_Levy.pdf
Page IX-2 states that the historical amounts collected are:
2010: the same as 2011, $73.5MM
2009 - $75.9MM
2008 - $75.9MM
2007 - $68.1MM
The rates per thousand have changed slightly over the years. In order to find the 2010 rate, I had to look in a different report.
I found it in here.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:yinQEJdT0TkJ:www.portseattle.org/downloads/about/2010_Statutory_Budget_1.pdf+king+county+2010+property+tax+rate+port+of+seattle&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgjtVQEJOIFEpBPzYQKx067qeJDKr0c52xpiFe4DyfTKT0b29ZerX1rxDHoABzB1oFcO6eCWGti0ByvoefdbuOofRq4KoX4xWYz_DqwplqD1YLBayEeHYfMNS0DN5ikF7KT8uUK&sig=AHIEtbTnMQmJhQ4sViWml1LMAUIqRQR16w
The 2010 rate was $0.21595 per thousand, or $21.595 per $100K . So, for each $100K of assessment, the tax increased by ($22.35 - $21.595) or $0.755 .
This is technically a tax increase per thousand, but many home owners' valuations have dropped significantly so many people are paying less to the port than last year.
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The really big mystery is how the Port is going to come up with $300MM for the viaduct replacement. The maximum the Port can collect in property tax is about $85 or $87 MM per year, so even if they created the max increase, they would only gain an additional $14MM per year.