Shoreline Living Workshop: Creating a Sound Landscape – Thursday, Dec 13

A free workshop will teach Mason and Thurston County shoreline residents how to preserve and replant shorelines to stabilize slopes, protect Puget Sound, and provide wildlife habitat. It will be held on Thursday, December 13, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Griffin Fire Hall, 3707 Steamboat Loop Road, just off Hwy. 101.

NOTE THE DATE CHANGE. The workshop has been postponed from December 3 and will now be held on December 13.

The workshop is sponsored by WSU Mason County Extension through a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Griffin Main Fire Station
Thursday, December 13
6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Click here for a copy of the poster for this event. But, note that the poster reads “December 3” and the event has been re-scheduled for December 13.

Topics will include how to create a beautiful landscape that protects the shoreline and requires little maintenance once established, what you can do on your own and when to call in the experts, how to have a view and trees, too, and other shoreline stewardship tips.

Bring your questions and take home answers along with reference materials for later use.

Though the workshop is free, advanced registration is requested to ensure materials and space for everyone. Call 360-427-9670 ext. 680 to register or for more information.

Contact Person:
Karen Paxson
Water Resources Program Assistant
WSU Mason County Extension
11840 N. Highway 101
Shelton, WA 98584
Phone: 360-427-9670 ext. 686

“Calling All Local Businesses” and “New Neighbor Welcome Baskets”

Calling All Local Businesses!

There have been many requests from local businesses to be in the Peninsula People Business Directory. We produced our first edition of the Directory this last summer.

Click here to download your own copy of our summer Directory.

We are now working on a revised edition of the Directory. We would like to add even more local businesses.

If you own a local business and would like to be included in the next edition, please contact us by email.

Do you know of a local business who is not already in the Directory? Please have them contact us at directory@GriffinNeighbors.org.

New Neighbor Welcome Baskets

We need more Brochures, Business cards, Flyers, discount certificates and more doggie treats/toys from the business that are in the Directory now. We have run low on the supplies being used to assemble new Welcome Baskets.

If you have materials for the Welcome Baskets, please bring a supply to the offices of Fred Finn. GNA Board Member Fred Finn has generously offered space to collect materials to be assembled into Welcome Baskets. The entrance is through Kristial’s Florists, located near the
Subway on Sexton and US-101.

We could also use help collecting a supply of other brochures and literature from State and County agencies in regard to Air and Water quality, Shoreline protection, Fish and Wild life, Noxious weeds and on and on. Those are part of the Welcome Baskets, too.

Anyone can gather these educational items and bring them to our supply area in the back of Fred Finn’s office at Island Square. Please package your materials neatly in boxes, labeled envelops or banded together to keep the card table neat.

If you drop of a supply of items for the Welcome Baskets, please be sure your materials are in boxes, labeled envelopes, or rubber banded together.

Do You have New Neighbors?

Those folks who have or know of new families in the area can go to Fred’s office and create their own Welcoming Basket to take to their new neighbor. Or, they can leave a message at 252-6047 or email us and we’ll help.

A Welcome Basket is a good way to meet and greet your neighbor.

Many thanks to those folks who have helped in this community activity by gathering these materials to share with our new neighbors.

Only you can make a difference!

Thank you for your interest and your contributions.

Progressive Campaign Calls for Thoughful Property Tax Reform

Fuse, an organization based in Seattle and working for progressive issues, is calling Washingtonians to “Say No to Tim Eyman’s Tax Plan.”

Chris McCullough, Political Director of Fuse, writes in a recent email that “Reenacting I-747 would be a terrible mistake. I-747’s 1% blanket cap preserves the worst inequities of our current property tax system while slowly bleeding local governments of their ability to provide essential services.”

Send a Message to the State Legislature: We Want Real Property Tax Reform, Not a Tim Eyman Stunt

McCullough’s email continues:

The Legislature has a real opportunity to enact thoughtful, fair property tax reform in our state. We can reduce the tax burden on those who can least afford it while ensuring local governments can pay for schools, roads, police, and fire protection.

Please sign our petition today – we have to send the Legislature a powerful message demanding real property tax reform in Washington State, not a Tim Eyman stunt.

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/proptaxreform

Our property tax system is broken. I-747’s 1% cap is lower than the rate of inflation, which means local governments can collect fewer dollars in real terms every year. At the same time, seniors and low-income people are being taxed out of their homes as property values rise.

There are better options. One proposal from the Washington State Budget & Policy Center is a property tax “circuit breaker”, which would offer tax credits to lower and moderate income homeowners who are paying more than a certain threshold of income in property taxes. Eighteen states have successfully enacted similar proposals.

There are other potential solutions as well, but the Legislature is focused on Tim Eyman’s approach, and won’t seriously consider anything else without a powerful message from their constituents. Sign our petition today, and let them know that you demand thoughtful property tax reform.

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/proptaxreform

The Legislature should not reenact a thoughtless law for the sake of political expediency. We can do better than Tim Eyman’s vision of the future . Please sign our petition asking them to do the job we elected them to do — enact thoughtful property tax reform.

Thank you,

Chris McCullough, Fuse

Fuse is bringing people like you together to make our state more progressive. Fuse offers busy but concerned people fast, easy and fun ways to make your voice and values heard and make a difference.

Support our member-driven organization: Fuse depends on the support of our members. If you’d like to support our work, you can give now at:

http://www.fusewashington.org/donate

Nov 29 Special Legislative Session to Deal With Property Tax Limits

As reported in The Olympian this last November 8, “A sharply divided state Supreme Court has struck down a six-year-old citizen initiative that capped yearly increases in property taxes to 1 percent.” The 5-4 court decision said that Initiative 747 was unconstitutional because it amended a law that didn’t exist any longer in the form the initiative stated. According to The Olympian, “I-747 limited yearly increases in local governments’ property taxes to 1 percent, unless voters approved more. An exception was made to allow additional collections for new construction.”

To make matters more interesting, local governments are to tell county taxing agencies by November 30 what their tax requests will be for 2008.

Tim Eyman, whose organization created I-747, wrote in an e-mail following the court’s decision, that local governments “will be like pigs at the trough.”

“Taxpayers now face the nightmare scenario,” he said. “We’re in for absolute chaos.”

In the couple of weeks that have followed, it seems likely the nightmare scenario he described was the product merely of political posturing. What is equally clear, though, is that those of us in Thurston County have a front-row seat to important events – events we can influence.

Once State Attorney General Rob McKenna decided that an appeal was unlikely to produce a different result, Governor Gregoire called a special session of the Legislature. The date she chose was one when representatives were already going to be in town, preparing the the normal session beginning in January. That special session begins this Thursday, November 29.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

PUBLIC HEARING – NOV 29
The House Finance Committee will have a public hearing at 8:15 AM November 29 in Hearing Room B of the O’Brien Building. The Senate Ways & Means Committee has not yet announced its hearing time. Stick around and watch the House and Senate from the galleries.

Click this link for information about visiting the Capitol campus.

WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES – Tell them whether you support a cap or what kind of cap, what limits and what exceptions.
Senator Tim Sheldon
Representative Kathy Haigh
Representative William “Ike” Eickmeyer

We have already read reports the Olympia City Council has made it known they might seek an increase in property taxes. Tumwater and Lacey have both announced they will hold to the 1 percent cap.

The Olympian recently reported, “The general Thurston County property tax rate will drop from $1.21 per $1,000 of assessed value this year to $1.04 per $1,000 next year, under a preliminary $269.3 million 2008 budget set for unveiling Monday [Nov 19].” The general property tax affects all county residents. It does not include city, school or road taxes in unincorporated areas of the county.

A lot of us were stunned, earlier this Fall, when our property assessments arrived. Some of us were able to file appeals. For most of us, though, the bottom line is what the tax impact of those assessments will now be. Participating in this week’s special session may prove to be very good tonic.

— MARK MESSINGER