Aquatics center bill is so close Pasco can smell the chlorine - almost

Lawmakers are so close to passing a bill that would allow Pasco to pursue an aquatics center that city officials are admitting they’re “cautiously optimistic” about its chances.

“We’ll know in the next two weeks,” said Pasco Mayor Pro Tem Craig Maloney, who has shepherded the latest attempt to change state law through the 2019 session.

It’s the third time Pasco has asked Olympia to change the rules for public facilities districts to add aquatics centers.

If approved, Pasco could ask its voters to approve a small sales tax increase, which would provide a 20-year revenue stream to repay bonds to construct an aquatics center, possibly in the Broadmoor area.

State Rep. Bill Jenkin, R-Prosser, sponsored House Bill 1499 in the current session. Jenkin pushed the original version in 2017, his freshman year.

The House passed Jenkin’s bill on March 7 on an 89-9 vote.

The Senate Committee on Local Government signed off on March 21 and it is pending before the senate Rules Committee for a second reading, tantalizingly close to the full Senate vote it needs to pass.

The Rules Committee was scheduled to meet Wednesday but the bill was not discussed.

The deadline is April 9, with the session set to end April 28.

Bill has local opposition

Jenkin wasn’t available to speculate about his bill’s chances, but Maloney said he’s been a diehard champion.

“I can’t thank him enough. He spent so much capital and personal time on this, it floors me,” he said.

The “PFD Bill,” as it’s called, passed by a wide margin in the House, but the margin conceals local opposition.

Rep. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, and Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, were among those voting against the change.

Sen. Jim Honeywell, R-Yakima, voted against it in a Senate committee vote.

It’s not simply cross-river rivalry or concerns about the impact of raising the sales tax on big ticket items such as farm equipment.

If the bill passes and Pasco voters agree to tax themselves to build an aquatics center, it will erode, or even suspend any initiatives by the Tri-Cities Regional Public Facilities District.

The regional district shares a taxing authority with the individual Pasco, Kennewick and Richland facilities districts. If any of the individual districts passes a tax, it comes out of the regional district, and vise versa.

Taxpayers have rejected past efforts

To date, Tri-City voters have rejected sales tax requests for public facilities four times.

The first was in 2013, when the regional district asked for one-tenth of 1 percent sales-tax increase to pay for an aquatics center in Pasco.

Pasco voters approved the idea by more than 60 percent, but were outvoted by their neighbors in Richland and Kennewick. The proposal failed.

Kennewick voters repeatedly rejected “The Link,” a facilities district request to expand and update the Three Rivers Campus complex. Richland has not made any requests of its voters.

Former Kennewick Mayor Vic Epperly is the fiercest critic of Pasco’s request to add an aquatics center to the list of amenities a facilities district can pursue.

He wants the regional facilities district strengthened so it can pursue projects to benefit the Mid-Columbia at large.

Three Tri-City lawmakers voted for the bill. Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick and Rep. Skyler Rude, R-Walla Walla, joined Jenkin in voting yes on HB 1499.

Maloney said Pasco wants the same opportunity to ask its voters to fund a public amenity that Kennewick had.

Pasco residents support water park

Pasco, with a median age of 28, expects to add 50,000 people in coming decades. A family-friendly water park regularly tops the list of amenities residents say they want.

The current rules would let Pasco propose a performing arts center, a soccer field or any number of other things, but not a water park.

“Let’s have consistent rules,” Maloney told lawmakers earlier this month.

If the bill is signed into law, the Pasco Regional Facilities District will flesh out an aquatics center recommendation to the City Council, which would decide if or when to place it on the ballot.

The original proposal identified a Sandifur Parkway site. The land was sold after the request failed. The city is contemplating development in the Broadmoor area west of Road 100.

This story was originally published April 3, 2019 at 12:27 PM.