Do our taxes work for us?

Taxes and Shared Fees

We pay the money. Do we get the level of services we are paying for?
This is just a draft. Check over any of the links. Let me know of any changes I can make. Pat A. cshop@birchbay.net

Road District		$2,237,854.87
Birch Bay WARM (Helps with water runoff.)		$775,000
Birch Bay Lighting ESTIMATE		$31,799,93
Birch Bay Water & Sewer District		$0
Sub Total		$3,044,654.80
Blaine Birch Bay Park & Rec. District		$165,642.70
North Whatcom Fire & Rescue		$2,127,597.96
County Library District		$740,461.19
Sub Total		$3,033,701.85
Total Taxes and Fees		$6,078,356.65

Source Assessors Tax Book p. 7 – 12 Annual Tax Book 2022

Whatcom County Treasurer’s Office

To compare taxes with Blaine click HERE.
To compare population with area cities click HERE.
To compare how much property taxes each area pays per person click HERE

Birch Bay is an urban growth area which means three things:
1. Urban Growth areas generate more taxes.
2. Urban areas can deliver services to people more efficiently than rural areas.
3. Urban areas are areas of growth. (This is my concern and I think it is a concern of a lot of people.)

Because Birch Bay is an urban area for growth, it needs our attention. It should not be an area where developers who want to build projects and real estate people who want to sell them push a government that is always looking for more tax dollars to accept developers projects. Too often the taxes from developers’ projects do not offset the impacts the development has on their neighbors. This is in part that tax dollars collected from the Birch Bay area go to pay for services in the rural areas of Whatcom County. We need to gain control of our growth and the growth of our tax dollars.

Contact Numbers for Birch Bay

Whatcom County Road District + Others	1 360 676 6717
Birch Bay WARM (Helps with water runoff.) A fee-based on impervious surfaces	1 360 676 6717
Birch Bay Lighting (Have the number on the street light pole ready.)	1 888 225 5773
Blaine Birch Bay Park & Rec. District Prop. Tax	1 360 656 6416
North Whatcom Fire & Rescue (fire 21)	1 360 318 9933
County Library District Covers all of the county except Bellingham	1 360 676 6717
Birch Bay Water and Sewer Fee-based service A taxing area that does not tax.	1 360 371 7100