Drafter
Clerk 11/07/2014
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AN ORDINANCE regarding the King County noxious weed control program; revising King County noxious weed control program assessments; and amending Ordinance 13325, Sections 1 and 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.670.200.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. On November 15, 2007, the King County council adopted Ordinance 15958 at the request of the King County noxious weed board to raise the noxious weed control program assessment in order to expand noxious weed control services as authorized in RCW 17.10.240.
2. Since the last noxious weed parcel assessment increase in 2007, there have been increases in the costs of providing noxious weed prevention and control services, increases in the number and acreage of noxious weed sites in King County that are mandated for control by chapter 17.10 RCW, including an unprecedented increase in the number of sites infested with garlic mustard sites, a highly challenging and damaging Class A noxious weed that is mandated for eradication, and a decrease in external grant funding for the riparian knotweed program.
3. The King County noxious weed control board resolved on May 21, 2014, that the noxious weed control program assessment must be increased to provide the services necessary to educate the public about noxious weeds harmful to the economy and environment of King County, and to identify and control both terrestrial and aquatic noxious weed infestations mandated for control by chapter 17.10 RCW.
4. The King County noxious weed control board's budget for noxious weed control for 2015 and 2016 is included in the King County budget for 2015 and 2016 submitted to the King County council by the King County executive, and based on this budget an increase in the noxious weed control program assessment is warranted on all property not classified as forest land from two dollars and ten cents to three dollars and seventeen and one-tenth cents per parcel, and from fifteen cents to twenty-two and sixty...
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