PORT ANGELES – Clallam County taxpayers’ nickels and dimes could become the silver bullets in the fight against crimes, Sheriff Bill Benedict said Monday.
Benedict, in office for 92 days, noted that the county’s population is growing even as its cost of living is rising – but its revenue from property taxes can increase only 1 percent each year.
“One of the things we are discussing is a criminal justice sales tax to put before the people,” Benedict told members of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce at its weekly meeting in the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
Eighty percent of his department’s $10.6 million budget goes to salaries and benefits, he said.
Meanwhile, the cost of living adjustment that is built into deputies’ contracts rose 3.8 percent, and the county’s contribution to their pensions is climbing 8 percent.
Since 2001, however, Initiative 747 has limited governments’ revenue from property taxes to 1 percent increases, he noted.
“The last couple of years have been bad,” Benedict said, while costs have risen.
