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To learn more about the proposed $300 million Thurston County Courthouse proposal go here.

OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.”  IT WAS THE FOUNDER’S INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE.  IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT.  IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.”  UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…

Background articles and documents:

Thurston County Commission Minutes – August 14, 2018 – see Item 5a and 5b for a $200,000 City of Olympia “Interlocal Agreement for new courthouse” and $300,000 for New Courthouse “Consultant”

Thurston County Commission Agenda – April 30, 2019 – see Item 6a for new tax proposal

Thurston County Elway Poll Survey (conducted March-April 2019) summary

Thurston County Elway Poll Survey supporting doc – crosstab banners

Thurston County Elway Poll Survey supporting doc – topline

Thurston County Courthouse Draft Feasibility Report – 12-14-18

SouthSoundBiz – “Thurston County to Place New Courthouse Request on April 2020 Ballot”

The Olympian – ” Vote to pay for Thurston County’s new courthouse not coming until April 2020″

The Olympian – “County commissioners vote 2-1 to move courthouse to downtown Olympia”

Thurston County demonstrates how NOT to build a jail

Thurston County spends $8 million and 18 years to make a $4 million empty building worth $2 million

Childish political leadership in Thurston County is costing taxpayers millions

Thurston County staff create fraudulent data to justify tax increase

A plague of Consequences

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

6 COMMENTS

  1. you mention a 39,.4% increase in property tax to pay for the new courthouse. please let me know how you cane to that conclusion. I am interested in the methodology used to reach that number. thanks

    • I mention a 39.5% increase, which refers to the portion of the property taxes which are being increased by Thurston County with this proposal. Currently these rates are 1.22 per thousand valuation. The proposal is .47 per thousand valuation. I should have said it was 38.5% or rounded up to 39%, which would be more accurate. The Thurston County Commissioners can’t have any legislative impact on the education dedicated dollars, which (depending on where you live in Thurston County) usually amounts to around 58% of the total property tax burden. The county commissioners also can’t impact the property tax imposed by the cities (Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, etc), they also can’t impact or change the amount imposed by the local fire districts, cemetery district, parks district, port district, or any other independent elected body. They can only control the taxes which directly relate to their budget – in this case the 1.22 is the current amount going into the general fund over which the county has the ability to increase the rate. There are some other tax silos the commissioners can impact (roads fund, they can refuse to vote to approve the Conservation District funds, etc).

    • Another point, which is interesting, and I only briefly touch on it in the video, is RCW 84.55.050 (4)(c)(I) which was a recent change in state law to allow longer general obligation bonds for Thurston County (this subsection only applies to the county where the state capital is located). This change was made to make financing the Thurston County Courthouse at $300 million or more a more likely prospect because they could still raise large sums and only have a 50% threshold for the vote.

    • BTW, I changed the article to properly reference the 38.5% increase, made a note at the end of the article identifying that correction, and I also added that change to the comments section of the video. Thank you for commenting.

Comments are closed.