Members of the Ocean Shores Finance Committee on July 30 urged staff and council to make fuller use of Transportation Benefit District (TBD) revenues to fund routine maintenance, traffic safety and smaller capital projects rather than defaulting to general fund dollars.

Committee members said Ocean Shores receives approximately $500,000 per year in TBD revenue and that failing to use those revenues for eligible street maintenance causes the general fund to absorb costs. The committee discussed several recent uses of TBD funding, including requests submitted for road cutouts, striping and lighting at high-priority intersections and for school-zone safety improvements, and urged staff to continue identifying eligible maintenance projects.

"Every time you go and spend a dollar at 7-11, it adds up quick, and that's the same thing" with TBD uses, one committee member said, stressing that small recurring projects compound into a meaningful capital reserve over time. Members noted the existence of a city 6-year transportation improvement plan used to qualify for WSDOT and other grants and recommended documenting priorities in a project-management system so eligible items are charged to the TBD rather than the general fund.

The committee also discussed MRSC (Municipal Research and Services Center) guidance and whether Ocean Shores has formally "assumed powers" for its TBD. Staff said the city appears to be one of the few jurisdictions that has not adopted an assumption-of-powers approach and agreed to research the legal and procedural implications so the council can clarify whether separate TBD meetings or a different governance approach would simplify approvals for TBD-funded projects.

Ending: staff said they will continue preparing TBD budget requests for eligible work, pursue education of department leads on eligible uses, and explore project-management tools and citizen-reporting tools to capture routine maintenance needs for possible TBD funding.