Effective immediately, Buckley is imposing a 1 percent hike in the utility tax charged to city customers, pushing the rate from 9 percent to 10 percent.

“People who aren’t using certain utilities don’t pay the tax,” Buckley Mayor Pat Johnson said. “If a resident is on a septic system, then they don’t pay the utility user tax for sewage. Or, if they don’t use natural gas, they are not taxed for natural gas or the user tax associated with it on their monthly utility statement.”

The situation is different with water, where nearly everyone in town is a city customer.

“The more you use, the more you will pay for that utility and the tax you will pay will consequently be higher as well,” Johnson said.

John Leggett can be reached at jleggett@courierherald.com or 360-802-8207.