The Port of Olympia loses money every year, making it up with property taxes.
The budget presented at this meeting conceals $1.2 million in interest expense on bonds sold to finance capital improvements for the marine terminal, marina, airport, and office properties. The interest on these should be assigned to the specific business units. When that is done, the losses for each business unit are higher. A minimum of $2 million every year for the marine terminal alone.
Commissioner Evans is on the right track: it's fine to use taxes to support the public functions, like Port Plaza, but not to subsidize Weyerhaeuser's job export facility (raw logs that should be processed here instead).
I hope the three new Port Commissioners just elected will insist on more honest financial reporting by the Port, so all the subsidies to shipping companies, yacht owners, airplane owners, and office buildings is more transparent.
The Port holds about a half-billion dollars worth of real estate (data from Thurston County Assessor, not the pre-inflation "book value" reported on the Port's balance sheet). . They should be able to collect enough rent from that to not need a property tax in addition.
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