MLIRD to not levy taxes in 2022

MOSES LAKE — Property owners within the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District (MLIRD) are going to get a bit of a break this year after the board of directors overseeing the district voted unanimously not to levy taxes in 2022.

According to Bill Bailey, president of the MLIRD’s board of directors, the district decided to wait until it has clearer guidance from the Washington State Appeals Court on how the district should levy taxes.

This is the second year the MLIRD will function without levying any taxes on property owners within the district. The MLIRD is one of the lead governing organizations overseeing the condition of Moses Lake, which has been plagued with blue green algae blooms during the last several summers.

Under state law as interpreted by the MLIRD until early 2020, the district was authorized to levy up to 75 cents per $1,000 in assessed value to cover its irrigation function while it was also allowed to levy an additional 25 cents per $1,000 for rehabilitation to care for the lake.

However, in March 2020, former Grant County Superior Court Judge David Estudillo ruled the MLIRD’s imposition of the 75-cent portion of the tax violated state law, since the MLIRD did not have any way of delivering irrigation water to property owners in the district.

Then in February 2021, Estudillo ruled Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant did not have to collect the MLIRD’s assessment since the district’s “funding mechanism is an unauthorized tax.”

The MLIRD is appealing the ruling.

Bailey said until the state appellate court sorts things out, the MLIRD has cut costs “to the bare minimum” and will rely on reserves to fund its current operations.

For example, Bailey said the MLIRD board has not hired a new executive director to replace Chris Overland, who died suddenly in June. However, the MLIRD will continue its regular aquatic weed control program, Bailey said, and will maintain enough in reserve to maintain and even replace the MLIRD’s two small dams.

“We have in the neighborhood of $1 million in reserves,” Bailey said. “It will be enough.”

Bailey said the MLIRD has also prepared its own assessment roll to collect its own taxes, but doesn’t intend to use that before the court rules on the district’s ability to levy taxes.

The MLIRD is also working with the city of Moses Lake to provide irrigation water to the city from the lake to replace potable water drawn from wells. The MLIRD has rights to 50,000 acre feet of water from the lake per year for irrigation purposes, he said.

“The Odessa Aquifer is running out, and agriculture is working to develop systems to use Columbia River water instead of aquifer water,” he said. “We can draw water right out of the lake.”