Evan Smith: Kiest says LFP wasn’t concerned about taxes

By Evan Smith
ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Lake Forest Park City Councilman Alan Kiest (pictured) told me recently that he had a hard time in the recent election campaign getting voters to accept his anti-tax message.
Kiest lost his Council position in the recent election to Councilwoman Sandy Koppenol, who gave up her current Council position and challenged Kiest.

Kiest told me last week that voters told him during the campaign that they weren’t concerned about taxes because they had learned that their property assessments had gone down.
Kiest said that this shows a misunderstanding of the indirect relationship between assessments and taxes.
He was referring to the practice of rates being set by the amount collected rather than by a percentage of assessed valuation.