Kasper V. City Of Edmonds

case and in a companion appeal, Thymian v. Massart, post p. 806, 420 P.2d 351 (1966), concerns the meaning of the words "total cost of the improvement" as they appear in the presently effective version of RCW 35.43.180, which provides for restraint of local improvement projects by protest of the owners of property within the proposed local improvement district. The problem is whether "total cost of the improvement" means the total cost of a project, including the amount proposed to be contributed from municipal funds, or whether it simply refers to the assessed cost as borne by the property owners whose property is specially benefited. Viewed from a slightly different vantage point, the basic issue is whether the legislature intended to allow a municipality to deprive property owners of their right of protest when the municipality involved proposes to provide, from one fund or another, more than 40 per cent of the amount required to finance the local improvement.