PORT ANGELES — Clallam County government is good for Clallam County — to the tune of about $40.4 million in 2007 after deducting sales and property taxes — according to its chief administrator.
Jim Jones said he reached that conclusion as he prepared the county’s 2007 budget.
”I was pleasantly surprised,” Jones said before addressing the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce last week,
Jones said county government is a major economic engine that pumps many more dollars into people’s pockets than it takes in taxes.
Using preliminary 2007 figures, Jones said the county will collect — or ”take out” — $24.4 million in taxes from all sources.
Those include taxes on property, timber, sales, gas, real estate transactions, hotel/motel receipts and taxes that fund 9-1-1 and the Opportunity Fund.
It will produce — or ”put back” — $64.8 million that includes $24.6 million in wages, salaries and benefits, plus roughly $40.2 million in capital projects and services.
Much of this ”profit,” Jones acknowledged, will flow from federal and state grants that themselves have become a major support of county government.
