Levies, taxes, bonds… oh my!

I think I can hear the collective groan from all of us when we hear these words. We think about what it means to us on a personal level and what we pay, but it also means that we are failing in this area and need to raise more money.  By failing, I mean from the standpoint of not having enough tax revenue in our community.

Our schools are such a perfect example of this. After the last bond failure I sat on one of the committees the district created trying to come up with some ideas on how to pass a bond the community will accept, and what we could remove from this bond so that it will be acceptable but not fail our kids going forward. I also found myself trying to understand why Kent schools never have to focus on this issue.  That district is absolutely blessed with so many businesses that KSD officials don’t have to worry about the tax revenue coming in. How do we do this?  How can our community get to this point?

I get the fact that our city limits are significantly smaller. But so is the size of our school district. Great, we don’t need as much tax revenue but we still need enough to support what we have and want to keep. When business makes a sale,  tax is collected and profits are made. Taxes go to the state and the community where the business is located. Any profit goes to the business owners, either a corporation — usually in another state — or to a local person who in turn will spend that money again locally.

During the next few months I would like to take time to introduce the community to our local businesses —  who the owners are, what they want us to know about their business, why they came to our community, where they volunteer and how our community impacts their bottom line.

I think that as a community, if we wrap our arms around these local businesses and support them the way they support our community, we will see such a profound impact for all of us.  We have so many businesses here in town that are not on Highway 169 or Kent-Kangley. They are out of their homes, off the beaten path, out in Ravendsale or Hobart, but bottom line, they all contribute to our community.

As a mom I have often found myself with the dilemma of fitting things into my budget, couponing and the guilt of leaving town to shop. I have realized it isn’t always possible to do all of these things, so I have made some adjustments. I do still coupon since this allows me to keep more money in my budget for other things I want to splurge on.

These splurges I typically spend in town. I get my coffee here — we have eight locally owned stands — buy my party supplies in town, enjoy meals or desserts with the family right here and so much more. I have had so many comments about locally owned businesses being more expensive.

Here are a couple of things to think about: they do not always have the purchasing power of a large business. Those large businesses also do not put as much money back into our community. These large businesses do not usually volunteer in our community like our local  business owners.And, these large businesses do not have a vested interested in our schools, parks etc., because their children do not live here.

Please keep in mind, even if you are spending a couple of more cents at a local business this is money that is reinvested right here. As all of these cents add up it may help to balance budgets and growth for our police and fire, our schools, parks and levies, bonds and taxes may not be something we have to vote on every year.

Together, we can all make a difference right here in the community that we love. Please help to support our local businesses and ultimately our schools, police and fire, parks, community services and so on.

Reach Megan Sheridan at megansheridan@relylocal.com. For more information on local businesses please visit www.relylocal.com/maple-valley-covington-washington and follow us on Facebook to see our local events and Cash Mobs around town.