Port District/Fairgrounds

Port District of South Whidbey Island

The Board of Commissioners of the Port District of South Whidbey Island, Island County, Washington, adopted Resolution No 16-03 concerning Fairground property and a property tax increase to support it. If approved, this proposition would authorize the District to accept the transfer of the Fairground property from Island County, and increase its regular property tax levy to support Fairgrounds expenses by five cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, from its current rate of $0.133 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, to $0.183 per $1000 of assessed valuation for collection in 2017. Thereafter, such new levy amount would be used to compute limitations for subsequent years as allowed by chapter 84.55 RCW.

Should this proposition be approved? 

Ok, you got that on the first read, right? For starters, this applies only to people who live within the Port of South Whidbey district, roughly the same as the South Whidbey School District. So the rest of you readers can ignore it entirely – unless you’re interested.

Ok, I’ll save you reading all my reasons below. I’ll be voting NO.

Now, I went to a lot of trouble to research and write this, so read it already.

Everybody and their grandmother’s second cousin has by now received at least 2 or 3 pieces of mail concerning this, and the Whidbey Record touts it as the best thing since peanut butter.

One of the things about being a legal beagle is that I read the fine print, go back to the references, figure out which goes where and what applies when. From what I can see, while this purports to be a property tax increase to support buying and upgrading the fairgrounds, there is nothing binding in the various resolutions and statements. So if the Port District concluded that this is all just more work than they want to do, or it is not paying for itself, or  . . . fill in the blank, they could dispose of the fairgrounds, or the fair. In fact, they could simply divert the funds to some other project, like maybe another upgrade of the Langley marina.

I am told that there is a clause in the sale agreement which says that the Port District will not be able to sell the fairgrounds without a vote of the people. Ok, even if that is true, isn’t that what they’re doing right now? They’re asking us to vote on the sale of the fairgrounds by the county to the Port District. And they could just as easily ask us to vote on selling the fairgrounds to  . . . who knows? One of the rules of political dealing is that if you keep a door firmly shut you never have to worry about whatever is on the other side. Once you open that door, you have to spend all sorts of time and energy fighting off whatever crazy proposals someone or other comes up with, because the door is now open to it. I prefer to keep that door shut. There is also the question: if the county can’t afford to maintain the fairgrounds, with its taxing ability county-wide, how is the Port District going to do it with its much more limited tax base?

The Port District has absolutely no experience in operating or overseeing a fair, or in managing such a piece of land. I’m reminded of various fiascos involving purchase of the ferry parking lot. It might be interesting to ask how that is working out financially.

The concern of many people involved with producing the fair and dealing with the grounds is that the Port District has in the not so distant past come up with completely untenable proposals, which then had to be beaten down. The person who prepared that report is the chair of the “buy the fairgrounds” committee. This does not engender confidence. The Port District says it will raise funds by leasing space to small businesses. And then someone asks what those businesses will do in August, during the run up to the fair. Haven’t heard much of an answer thus far. And has anyone looked into what businesses are interested in leasing space there?

Bottom line fact: Island County is intended to serve the best interests of all the people in the county. The Port District’s mandate, by contrast, is “economic development.” They don’t need to worry about the people, just whether they can make money on the place. And that leaves me with a serious case of heartburn.

I will be voting a resounding NO.