Ocean Shores voters — by fewer than 100 votes — appear to have narrowly approved a sales and use tax for transportation improvements on the Aug. 7 ballot after the most recent remaining returns were counted by the Grays Harbor County Auditor’s office.
Yes votes for Proposition 1 totaled 1,292 (51.78 percent), while there were 1,203 no votes (48.22 percent) after the penultimate tally of ballot results were announced on Monday afternoon. The election is scheduled to be certified on Aug. 21.
The two-tenths of one percent sales tax “will pave the way to repair our roads and help meet pavement preservation needs,” the city’s voter fact sheet states. The city was able to ask voters for the local sales tax authority after the City Council last year formally approved a Transportation Benefit District, which is authorized by the state as a means to raise funds for street-related needs.
According to city estimates, the local sales tax collections would generate about $220,000 a year, while increasing the sales tax by an amount that equates to “20 cents per $100 spent.”
Mayor Crystal Dingler last week said she was “delighted with the election results so far” on the Proposition 1 measure.
“I believe the voters are generally supportive of having their streets repaired and maintained,” Dingler said. “The … sales tax seemed like the least painful route to accomplish that.”
Other key elements:
• By law, the funds must be used for transportation improvements and preservation.
• The sales tax revenue will be kept in a separate account and not in the city’s general fund.
• The tax impacts visitors and local residents alike, and lasts for 10 years, if approved.
• There are 224 lane miles of pavement in the city.
• There were 109 locations where the pavement was found in 2017 to be in distress.
• Needs are estimated by the city to be $426,000 a year.
Dingler said she and Public Works Director Nick Bird have begun discussing bids for the work budgeted for this year.
”We have a number of places selected that are the worst of the worst, and will do the most we can while staying within budget. Certainly, we will continue to have areas fail as the logs and debris rot beneath the original asphalt, so the ongoing sales tax income to help make those repairs is crucial,” Dingler said.
At Monday night’s City Council meeting, Jon Martin asked the other members to come up with a consensus “that the money that is collected go to the maintenance and repair of our existing roads.” He noted public concerns that the sales tax revenue could be used for the Point Brown sidewalks and bike lane project, and wanted to emphasize that “in my mind, that’s a totally separate thing.”
The city will have to create a separate fund for the new tax revenue.
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about what we’re going to do with the money. But really, we’re going to fix our streets with it,” Dingler said.
Finance Director Angela Folkers said the new fund will be presented to the Council under an official ordinance, at which point the members can “dictate what that money will be used for as part of that process.”
The new tax rate will not go into effect until Jan. 1. “We actually won’t be seeing much revenue until probably March of 2019,” Folkers said. “There are still a lot of things to be done once we get the election certified.”
Dingler urged the Council to be cautious about binding future decisions about how the money is allocated, but agreed with the overall goal: “This is a good project for us to be working on, and I am very much in favor of it.”
County election results
The Grays Harbor County Auditor race is still up in the air after the latest count of primary election ballots Monday afternoon.
Joe MacLean, the sole Republican in the three-way race is an easy primary winner overall, but two Democrats are neck and neck for the chance to oppose him in November. Chris Thomas, the incumbent, holds a small lead over Jasmine Dickhoff — 17 votes out of the more than 16,000 counted. Dickhoff is mayor of Hoquiam. MacLean received just less than 45 percent of the total votes cast. After Monday’s count Thomas had 4,514 votes to Dickhoff’s 4,497.
Voter turnout stood at a little more than 40 percent in Grays Harbor County Monday; statewide turnout was listed on the Secretary of State’s web site at a little less than 38.5 percent. The next ballot count is scheduled for Friday.
