Clark County council reviews jail funding model, weighs levy, sales-tax and grant options

Clark County Council members on April 23 reviewed a financial model for potential revenue options to pay for a proposed jail capital project and broader law-and-justice spending, and directed staff to continue outreach and coordination with the City of Vancouver before deciding whether to place measures on the ballot.

County staff presented an interactive model showing how different revenue choices — including a councilmanic 1% property tax option, a proposed legislative 3% option that was later reported as likely removed, and a levy lid-lift — would affect annual revenues and the impact on a median homeowner. "I've created a model that helps calculate depending on which options are taken," Mark Gassway said, noting the model can show one-time or multiyear levy lid-lift scenarios and household impacts given a median home value used in the model.

The model produced a scenario that staff described as generating about $130,000,000 under a levy lid-lift option. Staff said the interactive spreadsheet also shows the effect of annual increases and compounding if multiple years of a capped percentage were taken, and can output household impacts using an assumed median home value of $540,000. The transcript did not specify exact per-household figures for every scenario; where precise per-household impacts were not spoken…