What happened to the 2004 Whatcom sales tax money meant for a new jail?

In 2004, Whatcom County voters approved a one-tenth of one percent sales tax increase, Proposition 1 - Jail Facilities Sales and Use Tax.

This was presented to voters to be used “solely for costs associated with financing, design, acquisition, construction, equipping, operating, maintaining, remodeling, repairing, re-equipping, and improvement of jail facilities that house inmates being held, charged, or convicted of misdemeanor and felony acts, as authorized by RCW 82.14.350.”

Estimates for this sales tax revenue from 2005-2021 are as follows

$2.3 million (3.7%) for the construction of the Irongate minimum security facility

$2.6 million (4.1%) jail controls debt service (upgraded security at the main jail)

$2.8 million (4.4%) planning for a new main jail facility

$6.1 million (9.5%) city jail credit (a credit back to cities to pay their share of incarceration costs for inmates booked for crimes committed within that city)

$20.3 million (31.6%) alternative corrections operations

$30 million (46.7%) minimum security in-custody operations

Although the original plan was to use the tax revenue towards constructing a new main jail after the work-center was complete, more and more of the sales tax revenue was used for operating the existing facilities.

The recession of 2008 greatly impacted sales tax revenue - originally forecasted as $37 million for 2005-2015, the actual amount collected was closer to $31 million

Over time, the county's ‘general fund’ portion of the operating budget for the jail has been lowered and replaced by sales tax revenue.

Image: Whatcom County