The Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) is holding a hearing to create a new public agency, a Public Facilities District (PFD), purportedly for the purpose of building and operating a new pool to be located in Port Hadlock.

The PFD, run by a non-elected board as was the now failed Fort Worden PDA, would be a taxing district with the power to ask voters to increase sales taxes by 0.2%; those taxes would be paid by every county resident, including Port Townsend and the more distant parts of the county like Brinnon and the West End.

The BoCC recently created another new taxing district, the Transportation Benefit District (TBD). The county TBD has raised the sales tax rate to 9.2% in the county (not in PT, which has its own TBD), and has the authority to ask voters for an additional 0.2% sales tax.

Now, which of these 0.2% sales taxes would do the most good for the most people? 

The BoCC just heard an earful from Public Works about how much more money will be needed to keep the county roads in good condition. The last thing we need is for the 400 miles of county roads to fall into the same state of disrepair as those in Port Townsend.

A PFD pool would be used by a small percentage of county residents, but roads are used by everyone!

It’s clear that the TBD needs the 0.2% funding more than the PFD pool, and I believe we can’t afford both.

The PFD would raise the county sales tax rate to 9.4% and would raise Port Townsend’s sales tax rate to 9.6%. Doing both, the county sales tax rate would be 9.6%.

It comes down to Needs versus Wants. We all NEED all current county services, and we each must pay our fair share for them. 

A small number of county residents really WANT a luxury item like a pool, but they expect everyone in the county to pay for it? PFD? Nope.

Tom Thiersch

Jefferson County