Tumwater staff outlines plan to seek renewal of 0.2% transportation sales tax

Brandon, a City of Tumwater staff member, told the City Council during a Feb. 2025 work session that the city plans to seek renewal of the Transportation Benefit District (TBD) sales-tax measure that funds street maintenance and improvements.

The TBD funds a 0.2 percent portion of the local sales tax and was first funded in 2015; that 10-year authorization will expire in 2025 unless voters approve a renewal. "This is not a sales tax increase," Brandon said. He said the renewal would continue the existing 0.2 percent sales-tax allocation and would not change the overall sales-tax rate in Tumwater.

The TBD was created under state law and local code; Brandon cited RCW 36.73 and Tumwater Municipal Code 12.42 as the governing authorities. He said the city selected the sales-tax funding option because it generally raises the most revenue and spreads costs to people who come to Tumwater to shop.

Brandon told council members the TBD has generated about $19.2 million in revenue since funding began and is likely to exceed $20 million by the time the authorization expires in 2025 if renewed. He said TBD dollars have been used to leverage roughly $6 million in grant funding and that past projects include:

- More than 100 lane miles of maintenance work (about 40 percent of the city's roadway system), using more than 50,000 tons of asphalt; - Replacement of more than 100 curb ramps to improve accessibility; - More than 38,000 feet of pavement markings; and - Major projects such as the Israel Road improvements in front of city hall, the Linwood Avenue sidewalk project, and Second Avenue pedestrian and bicycle improvements (including a roundabout at Second and Lynnwood and full repaving nearly to Old Town Center).

Brandon said the TBD-funded projects often helped the city secure additional grant funding; he also noted staffing shortfalls in the city engineering group have limited the city's ability to pursue some grants in recent years. He estimated the next pavement maintenance project under discussion would be in the range of about $3 million to $4 million.

Council member Jefferson and other council members asked questions about neighboring jurisdictions' TBD choices and past paving activity. Brandon said Lacey uses the sales-tax TBD option and Olympia used a vehicle-license-fee TBD; he explained the sales-tax option typically produces higher revenue. He also said the city did not run a pavement-maintenance-only project last year but completed TBD-funded paving as part of larger projects such as Israel Road and started design on Linwood Avenue.

Brandon outlined near-term steps for renewal: staff will return to council with additional briefings, coordinate with the communications team on factual materials about the TBD (not lobbying), and prepare legislation including a council resolution to place the renewal measure on the April ballot. He said the deadline for the council to submit the resolution to the county to begin placing the measure on the ballot is Feb. 21.

No formal vote on the renewal measure was held at the work session; Brandon said he will return with more detail at upcoming meetings.