County mulls sales tax to fund criminal justice programs

The Clark County Council is considering a new criminal justice sales tax that wouldn’t require voter approval to be enacted.

The council agreed Wednesday to discuss and possibly vote on the new tax at its Aug. 5 meeting.

The measure is one of several options the council is considering to help pay for the county’s strapped law and justice programs, including the sheriff’s office, jail services, public defense and courts.

The county council has also discussed a property tax levy lid lift, which requires voter approval. Vancouver’s attempt to pass such a levy to fund law enforcement failed in November.

The Washington Legislature approved a new funding mechanism earlier this year that lets cities or counties adopt a 0.1 percent sales and use tax by June 2028 without voter approval. (A sales tax is paid at the time of sale, while a use tax is paid when a product is used if a sales tax wasn’t paid.)

Gov. Bob Ferguson made funding public safety and criminal justice programs a focal point of his campaign. And he started out this year’s legislative session demanding lawmakers include $100 million in the state budget to help local law enforcement departments hire additional officers.

The criminal justice sales tax legislation, House Bill 2015, also created a grant program to be created and run by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. The legislation stipulates that any local government that wants to pass the new sales tax is only able to impose and collect it if the local government receives one of those local law enforcement grants.

The government must meet several criteria to qualify for the grant, including having a commission-certified police chief or sheriff and use-of-force data collection and reporting.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t yet determined if it meets all of the requirements, County Manager Kathleen Otto said Wednesday.

The tax, if approved, could only be used for criminal justice purposes, like domestic violence services and public defender staffing.

If enacted, the county would need to report its tax revenue usage to the Association of Washington Cities and Washington State Association of Counties annually.

Sarah Wolf: 360-735-4513; [email protected]