The state Senate today approved a top priority of the Tacoma City Council: stronger authority for cities to make property owners pay for cleaning up junky yards.

Tacoma and other cities already have the power to clean up properties overrun with trash, derelict cars, weeds, vermin and the like, and to put a lien on properties to make sure they recoup the cost from the owner. But city officials say those liens expire and they have to spend time renewing them in court. The proposed change would change that by giving cities tougher lien authority that county governments already have.

The proposal was approved unanimously in the form of Senate Bill 5323.  It goes to the House, where a committee has approved a similar bill.

“We want to make sure the property values of our neighbors are kept up,” said Auburn Republican Sen. Pam Roach, the bill’s sponsor.