06/25/2007: "Council Passes A “No Brainer”"

The County Council has adopt legislation that will allow the County to retain an additional .01% of the sales and use tax that is collected in the county. Little things can add up. The change from the existing .08%, to .09% of the proceeds retained from the tax is estimated by the Auditor to result in “about $43,000 per year in additional funds”.

In making the recommendation to the Council to pass an ordinance allowing the County to keep the additional money, Auditor Milene Henley wrote in the Staff Report that the recommendation was a “no-brainer”.

Henley's report informed the Council that In 1997 the State legislature allowed rural counties that were classified as “distressed” (the term has since been changed to “Rural”) to “retain a portion of the state sales tax for the purpose of financing public facilities. The amount was not to exceed .04% of the state tax of 6.5%.

Henley explained the “.04% was to be taken as a credit against the portion of the sales tax due to the state, so that there was no impact on the individual consumer.”

The money can only be used for “economic development”, and must be used according to an adopted and approved plan, that results from consultation with Friday Harbor and all county port districts. The County has been receiving the funds since 2001. The amount collected for public facilities from 2001 through 2006 totals $348,734.45.