SEQUIM — You’d think the streets would be paved with gold. Not potholed.
By North Olympic Peninsula standards, Sequim has become big-box rich, with a new Wal-Mart in late 2004, The Home Depot in 2005, Costco and Petco in 2006 and Office Depot, Sleep Country Plus, Popeye’s Chicken and a slew of others opening in 2007.
Sales-tax revenues swelled apace, as people came, saw and shopped.
In 2005, Sequim reaped $2.138 million from taxable sales. In 2007, it was $2.395 million.
Contrast that with Port Townsend, whose population is 9,069 to Sequim’s 5,951. The Jefferson County city collected $1.65 million in sales-tax revenue last year.
The Sequim City Council is asking voters to approve a sales-tax increase of 0.2 percent in the Nov. 4 general election.
The hike would bring Clallam County’s 8.4 percent sales tax to 8.6 percent inside Sequim only. A $10 restaurant meal here would have 86 cents tacked on instead of 84 cents.
The increase, Mayor Laura Dubois says, could pour some $600,000 in new revenue straight onto Sequim streets.
If voters pass the ballot measure, the money will be earmarked for street improvements: new or repaired sidewalks, fixed potholes.
Dubois adds that the city needs the tax increase because it has several long-overdue street projects in older neighborhoods.
Fir Street, which fronts Helen Haller Elementary School and the Sequim Boys & Girls Club, has a sidewalk on only one side, for example.
At the same time, sales-tax flow has slowed in 2008, along with the nation’s economy. Sequim Finance Director Karen Goschen projects a nearly $400,000 drop from last year’s revenue.
Dubois expects the 2009 budget process to be a painful one, with another drop: $300,000 less in building-permit and utility-hookup revenues this year.
But why didn’t the city fix streets and lay sidewalks during the big-box boom years of 2006 and ’07?
“Good question,” Dubois said.
Then she looked to something this city of 5,951 did pour money into: the Police Department led by chief Robert Spinks since 2005.
The police budget, over the past three years, has almost paralleled the sales-tax revenue figures.
“They’re about equal,” Dubois said, holding up both palms as if to weigh the two amounts.
