The Thurston Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) discussed the public safety sales tax at a work session yesterday, February 12.
BoCC Chair and District 3 Commissioner Tye Menser said Patrick O’Connor, Director of Public Defense, shared that there are issues and concerns about the public safety sales tax.
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders explained how the tax came into fruition after his appointment.
“I met with the county commissioners and was told, ‘There's no money for you, so if you want a funded sheriff's office, you're going to have to get it. We'll put it on the ballot for you,’” said Sanders.
Voters passed the county public safety sales tax measure, or Proposition 1, during last year’s November 7 general election, and will take effect this April 1.
This means that taxes throughout the county would increase by two-tenths (.002) of one percent, except in Olympia, where it will increase by three-tenths (.003) of one percent. This is because Olympia has imposed the .001% Transportation Benefit District tax in addition to the .002% Public Safety tax.
The public safety sales tax proceeds would go to law enforcement and prosecution services.
In an article he wrote on The JOLT as support for the tax, Menser mentioned that it will fill funding gaps and address urgent priorities.
“60% of the proceeds would go to Thurston County, and 40% to the cities. The county's portion would be used under tight parameters set out in the county's resolution that placed the measure on the ballot. The cities' shares would be more flexible to meet their individualized needs,” Menser wrote.
Menser added that the tax will address the county’s three most pressing priorities—staffing shortages, financial structure, and election security.
“It passed by a large margin. I think there was a resounding ‘yes’ by the community,” shared Sanders. “A couple of red flags came up. One of the recommendations…was to use that budget where it's at and then use all future increases in costs and all associated costs diverted to the public safety tax.”
Sanders shared that Proposition 1 needs to be larger to sustain a general fund pay increase for all employees, especially since the general fund would now be unavailable for them once Proposition 1 pushes through.
The sheriff gave another example in simpler terms: every 1% increase in pay that they give to the existing deputies is one less deputy sheriff that Proposition 1 can fund.
At a meeting last July 18, Sanders indicated the plan to add 25 new deputy sheriffs, three sergeants, and four detectives.
Sanders also raised the concern about why the Sheriff’s office was never told that the county would freeze the general fund for them and let Proposition 1 pay for all upcoming costs.
Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall also spoke about potential audit findings and the ambiguity of the term “ongoing programs” in the resolution.
“In the resolution, it states that ‘revenue will not be used to supplant funding for ongoing services or programs’ so then the question becomes – what are ongoing programs? What's in that category?” said Hall.
Hall added that if the county receives an audit finding on the tax, it needs to pay back the public safety sales tax fund.
Thurston County Prosecutor Jon Tunheim emphasized that this will all come down to what the voters had in mind when they passed the proposition.
“The other thing I think you got to look at is your constituency conversations – what was in the mind of the voters when they supported this,” said Tunheim.
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Kruz81
From the sounds of it I'm not surprised the sheriff did not know how things worked, I've heard that's kind of how he runs everything right now. I bet if we were to look in to spending we would see some pretty silly things that are being purchased. This is after all the same sheriff that was involved in a high speed pursuit when he probably has other people to do that and he can be learning about the budget instead
Thursday, February 15 Report this
WendyS64
We can probably all understand why a man with zero experience in management would understand how to run a multi-million dollar county department, but in over a year, hasn't he gotten off patrol long enough to hire someone to do it for him? Isn't that what an Under Sheriff does? Giving him a set budget AND money from this new tax is just too much for a man with such obvious limitations to handle.
Friday, February 16 Report this