Skagit County holds public hearing on 0.1% criminal‑justice sales tax; officials cite need to sustain crisis‑response teams

Skagit County held a public hearing on Oct. 28 to consider establishing Chapter 3.15 of Skagit County Code to authorize a one‑tenth‑of‑one‑percent (0.1%) local sales and use tax for qualified criminal justice purposes under House Bill 2015. Deputy County Administrator Jennifer Johnson opened the hearing and Chief Criminal Deputy Tobin Meyer summarized statutory verification requirements and allowable uses under the legislation.

Meyer told the board the bill authorizes counties to impose a 0.1% tax and directs oversight and verification by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC). He described a number of required agency policies, training benchmarks and ongoing reporting obligations that local governments and the sheriff’s office must meet to be eligible for both the taxing authority and accompanying grant funds.

“This bill provides for public safety funding for local governments and law enforcement agencies through a grant program and a local sales and use tax authority,” Tobin Meyer, Chief Criminal Deputy, said. He summarized key requirements: agencies must adopt policies consistent with the Keep Washington Working Act; maintain and report use‑of‑force data to the Washington State Data Exchange (WADEp); meet training benchmarks including a 25% deputy completion rate for the CJTC’s 40‑hour Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and 100% completion for required trauma‑informed, gender‑based violence interviewing and case‑review training for officers who fall under that standard.

County submission to…