Passage of Safety Tax Relieves Sheriff and County Officials

Updated August 13 at 5:45 p.m.

San Juan County – Proposition No. 1, “Concerning the imposition of a sales and use tax for criminal justice and public safety purposes,”  appears to have passed, and with its implementation, .3 percent tax will be added to purchase of taxable goods, excluding groceries, medicine, prescription drugs and automobiles.

The vote on proposition No. 1 is 3,020 in favor, or 52.71%. Those voting to reject the measure were 2,709 or 47.29%.

As of noon on Friday, August 10, 5,979 votes were counted; there remain 55 votes left to count. The vote will be certified on August 20. There are 11,624 registered voters in San Juan County. The August 7 election brought out 51.44% voter turnout.

Orcas West, Orcas Central and Eastsound precincts rejected by measure by 15, 7 and 6 votes respectively; Orcas East approved the measure by  11 votes. Lopez South rejected the measure by 214 to 195 votes. On Shaw Island, one vote made the difference in approving the measure for that precinct.

Sheriff Rob Nou said he was “absolutely pleased and relieved [the measure] passed. Otherwise, the budget impacts the Sheriff’s Office would face the next three years would be catastrophic.”

Nou said that initial budget numbers indicated that his department would lost $200,000 in funding per year for the next three years. As staff makes up 80 percent of his budget, it would be “like losing two officers a year.”

At a Council Budget Subcommittee meeting on August 10, Interim County Administrator Bob Jean worked with Auditor Milene Henley, Communications Manager Stan Matthews, and Council members Jamie Stephens,  Patty Miller and Richard Fralick, Chair of the Budget Subcommittee to forecast the 2013 budget.

Henley reported some views that Orcas voters resented the 40 percent distribution of the tax revenue to Friday Harbor; the subcommittee discussed if there was general knowledge of the fact that state law regulating a public safety  tax increase requires that 40% of any such tax must go to incorporated municipalities within any county;  and that Friday Harbor residents pay property taxes to the municipality and to the county.

Sheriff Nou commented on the 40 percent distribution  to Friday Harbor, saying, “It makes reason to have the tax split between a typical county and its incorporated cities state-wide, but we are not a typical county by any stretch of the imagination.”

Jean told the Budget Subcommittee, that it would be a good idea to find out what the concerns were for the precincts that didn’t favor the tax increase.

The subcommittee reviewed what Jean described as a “progress report”  draft of the 2013 budget and made recommendations for the version Jean will present to the County Council later this fall. The County’s preliminary budget book ( a 7 MB pdf)  is available on the homepage of the county website at www.sanjuanco.com