Spokane County staff urges support for bill to let TIF finance public-safety facilities; reviews other legislative asks

Spokane County legislative staff told the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 4 that several bills of local interest are moving through the state Legislature and asked the commissioners to back a bill that would allow tax-increment financing to pay for police and fire facilities.

Mike Burgess, Spokane County legislative liaison, said Senate and House bills on freight rail, law-enforcement hiring grants and growth-management changes were at various stages in committee and that the new TIF bill would add the phrase "public safety facility" to the statute to allow police substations, precincts or fire stations to be eligible for TIF financing. "It really just adds the word public safety facility in the statute," Burgess said.

Burgess said he had heard opposition from some port districts and a few public-safety groups but recommended moving the county's position to "support." "If we do get the bill scheduled for a hearing, I'd love to develop that more and build a kind of coalition around folks that would support the bill," he said. Burgess told commissioners he would move the item into the county's support column and try to secure a committee hearing; the transcript records his statement that he would "move that over to support there," but the board did not take a formal recorded vote at the briefing.

Burgess also reviewed other measures and local requests the county is pursuing: PFAS filtration funding for several West Plains systems, capital requests for Plants Ferry and the Bellevue Water District, and a proposed change to the statutory timing of post-election swearing-in ceremonies for elected local officials. On PFAS, Burgess and county staff discussed two possible channels: a direct capital request for filters targeted at the West Plains, and an amendment to a state Department of Health funding request that would replenish the state's filtration fund and could be amended to include point-of-entry (POET) systems for wellheads.

Commissioners and staff discussed outreach strategy, which legislators to contact on each request and the need to file formal capital-budget request forms by the Jan. 20 deadline referenced in the briefing. Burgess asked commissioners if they wanted the county to move the public-safety TIF bill to the support column; with no objection voiced in the briefing, he said he would. He also said he would gather more detail on the opposition he had heard from ports and public-safety groups and report back.

No formal board votes on state bills were recorded during the briefing. Burgess and county staff said they would continue outreach and work with regional partners to secure hearings and champions in the Legislature.

Ending: Burgess said he would continue following the bills through the committee cutoff and would update the board; commissioners asked staff to proceed with capital-request outreach and to circulate one-pagers for review.