Fuhr named Person of the Year, council approves increased sales tax

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake City Manager Kevin Fuhr was named Person of the Year by the Moses Lake Community Coalition at Tuesday’s regular city council meeting, during which the council also approved a 0.001% increase to sales tax within city limits. 

Coalition Vice Chair Matt Paluch introduced the award.

“One of the things that we do as the Community Coalition every year is we present awards, and this year we had a very special award that we thought would be more appropriate to bring here than our end-of-year meeting,” Paluch said. “The years that I've been in Moses Lake, it’s been about 16 years now, it's been fairly consistent that when either the city or the schools or anybody needs somebody competent to do their work, Kevin Fuhr’s name is the first on the list. So, with that in mind and given the last few years of his service especially, we thought it was appropriate to award Kevin Fuhr the 2023 Person of the Year award, and we feel so strongly about this that, actually, from this year moving forward the award will be named after Kevin Fuhr.”

Fuhr responded to the award.

“I'm taking over the world,” he joked. “Thank you. I am honored and somewhat surprised. I had no idea this was going on. Thank you very much, and I will tell you this, I'm not doing it for the accolades, I'm doing it because I like to give back to the community and this is the way I know how to do it.”

Mayor Don Myers, whose mayoral term expires at the end of the year, was then presented with a plaque recognizing his service as Mayor since September of 2022. Myers will join the council again as a member on January 1 after running unopposed for position 3 in this year’s election. 

“I just want to say thank you to the council,” Myers said. “It's been a pleasure to work with you. I’ll be back next year, but thank you for your support.”

The council then moved to discuss a .001% increase to sales tax within the Moses Lake Transportation Benefit District. 

According to the item agenda memo, the city established the MLTBD in December of 2016 and created the boundaries of the MLTBD as the boundaries of city limits. The funds generated from the MLTBD sales and use tax are used for transportation improvements that preserve, maintain, and operate the planned and/or existing transportation infrastructure in the city.

“We get two-tenths of 1% in sales tax revenue that goes specifically to the Transportation Benefit District that would be used on those TBD projects,” Fuhr said. “If the council so chooses, you have … authority to adopt an additional one-tenth of 1% in TBD dollars, so it would raise our sales tax from 8.4% to 8.5%. That additional one-tenth of 1% would go to the TBD to help with those projects.”

Fuhr explained what the increased funds, totaling an estimated $600,000 annually according to the agenda memo, could be used for, including various possible transportation improvement projects.

“We have numerous gravel roads in the city that I would love to see get paved, and start maybe calling in some of the covenants on those roads so that we can get more bang for our buck,” Fuhr said. “I found out today we have actually over eight miles of gravel roads within the city. So, there's a lot of work to be done, plus we have a roundabout at the Yonezawa (Boulevard) and (State Route) 17 we're going to have to fund … So this additional one-tenth of 1% could give us some more funds to fund some of those projects, some of those road improvements.”

Council member Mark Fancher provided his input on the vote.

“I'm definitely In favor of this,” he said. “Not in favor of taxes, but this way of taxing, where everybody contributes to the people that are driving on these roads, through the sales tax.”

Council member Dustin Swartz also gave his opinion on how he wants to see the money used. 

“I was wrestling with this,” he said. “Obviously, costs are increasing everywhere in this day and age and I like to think we're doing all we can to curb that or slow it down at least, but, if we do enact the one-tenth of 1%, I guess for me, we should just go to the effort of identifying the projects that it's going to be used for. If it's gravel roads, then we should just come out and say that. Having an ‘and, and, and’ list, it seems to me it just opens up the door for the possibility of the money being spent less efficiently … But I would love to see the gravel roads be paved if that's what we’re going to do with it.”

Fuhr said both the original two-tenths of 1% voted in 2017 and the additional one-tenth of 1% have sunset clauses set for 10 years. 

“The vote for the two-tenths goes back to the voters after the 10-year period. This one-tenth would come back to the city council after that 10-year period,” Fuhr said. 

The council voted unanimously to approve the proposal. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

    Moses Lake Mayor Don Myers, left, accepts a plaque recognizing his service as Mayor from City Manager Kevin Fuhr, right. Myers’ term on the council expires at the end of year, at which point he will join the council again as a council member.
  

    Council member Mark Fancher, Deputy Mayor Deanna Martinez and Mayor Don Myers listen to staff reports during Tuesday’s regular Moses Lake City Council meeting.