OLYMPIA – The Tulalip Tribes are trying again to secure control of sales tax dollars collected at Quil Ceda Village, a move that opponents say would siphon millions of dollars from Snohomish County.
For the third straight year, the Tulalips are pushing for a change in state law that would reapportion sales tax revenues. They argue that Quil Ceda Village is a federally chartered city entitled to retain a share of those tax dollars, like any other municipality.
Earlier this month, the state House of Representatives passed House Bill 1721, which would bring about the change. Few noticed the 93-3 vote that sent the measure to the state Senate, which has killed the proposal each of the past two years.
“It’s an equity issue,” Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, said Friday. He is Quil Ceda Village’s general manager when the Legislature is not in session. “We’re providing services that the county is not. We’re building more infrastructure.”
Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, was one of the dissenters. He said he was concerned by state Department of Revenue projections that Snohomish County, which is in fragile fiscal health, would lose $1.7 million in sales tax the first year and larger amounts in subsequent years.
Kim Halvorsen, a leader of an association of nontribal homeowners on the Tulalip Reservation and McCoy’s Republican opponent in the last election, wondered how the county would make up the loss.
“Are we going to cut services or jobs, or are we going to raise taxes?” asked Halvorsen, who plans to lobby senators in Olympia on Monday.
County Executive Aaron Reardon said Friday that the change would not be detrimental to the county’s financial health.
“If the issue is service delivery, there is no legitimate concern,” he said.
The county would save money if the Tulalips started maintaining their own roads and providing police and fire protection, he said.
And the creation of new jobs would generate direct and indirect economic benefits that would offset the $1.7 million, Reardon said.
Quil Ceda Village is a 2,000-acre city encompassing the Tulalips’ business park off I-5. Wal-Mart and Home Depot are the anchors, with an outlet mall, Seattle Premium Outlets, set to open in May.
Chartered in 2001, the city has no residents and is governed by a three-person council appointed by the Tulalips’ leadership.
Under the proposed law, the state would continue to receive its 6.5 percent portion of sales tax revenue. The county would see its share shrink from 2 percent to 1.15 percent. Quil Ceda Village would receive .85 percent, or 85 cents on every $100 of sales.
Halvorsen said the public would not be able to follow the money and influence how it’s spent, because the dollars would be controlled by a sovereign nation.
McCoy said council members meet in public, and the state would audit tax collections and expenditures, as it would any other city.
The Snohomish County Council has taken no official position on House Bill 1721. The council’s finance subcommittee is scheduled to discuss it next week.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360- 352-8623 or jcornfield@ heraldnet.com
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