PORT ANGELES — A year in the making and on the eve of passage, a revenue-sharing agreement between Clallam County and Port Angeles city ran into criticism Monday.
County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness, examined the proposal that covers the Eastern Urban Growth Area — the business-rich U.S. Highway 101 corridor between DelGuzzi Drive and North Masters Street — and concluded that it relinquishes too much sales tax to the city.
The three commissioners will approve or reject the proposal today, and the Port Angeles City Council is scheduled to consider it tonight.
If Tharinger can persuade either of his fellow commissioners — Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles, or Mike Chapman, R-Port Angeles — to amend the agreement, the city may find itself without a decision to make.
The proposal calls for the county to pay the city half the tax revenue from new or expanded business in the sector until the city annexes it.
Likewise, it calls for the city to pay to the county half of such taxes that new or enlarged businesses in the area generate after annexation.
It makes no guarantee that Port Angeles ever will annex the area.
‘Troublesome’ to Tharinger
“It’s troublesome to me,” Tharinger said, explaining that he thought each government would share equally over equal periods of time.
His comments clearly surprised city officials at Monday’s commissioners meeting who included City Manager Mark Madsen and Public Works Director Glenn Cutler.
They also startled the county’s own negotiators, including Administrator Jim Jones, who earlier had called the agreement “a fairly momentous step in city-county cooperation for good health and economic development of the whole area.”
