Pasco aquatics center bill still afloat and sliding to the state Senate floor

A bill that would set the stage for Pasco to build a regional aquatics center is one step away from Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk after advancing to a full Senate vote in a chaotic session Thursday.

Rep. Bill Jenkin, R-Prosser, sponsored House Bill 1499, which would allow local public facilities districts to develop aquatic centers, if approved by their voters.

The bill passed in the House in March and was last seen pending in the Senate Rules committee.

It appeared dead on Thursday after it was unexpectedly removed from a list of bills headed to the Senate floor.

A last-minute reprieve moved it along and it was the last of the 99 bills on the Senate calendar.

“I’m getting whiplash,” said Pasco Mayor Pro Tem Craig Maloney, who has tracked the bill’s progress.

Jenkin said he didn’t know why the bill was pulled, then reconsidered. While he’s pleased it made it to the floor, he cautioned it still has to be put to a vote.

Voting before swimming

If the bill becomes law, the Pasco Facilities District will recommend an aquatics center plan to the Pasco City Council.

The council would then ask the city’s voters to authorize a sales tax increase of either one-tenth or two-tenths of a percent, or 1 to 2 cents on a $10 purchase.

The sales tax revenue would repay bonds issued to build the water park, possibly in the Broadmoor and Road 100 area.

Pasco voters enthusiastically supported the idea of an aquatics center in 2013, when it was proposed by the Tri-Cities Regional Public Facilities District.

The regional project would have been built near Road 68.

While Pasco voters approved it by a vote of more than 60 percent, voters in Kennewick and Richland shot it down. The request failed and the site was sold.

Pasco goes it alone

After being shut down by its neighbors, Pasco opted to advance the project through its own facilities district instead of the regional one.

State law allows regional facilities districts, but not local ones like the one in Pasco, to build aquatic centers. That prompted Jenkin’s three-year effort to change the law.

If Pasco successfully passes a sales tax, it would erode or eliminate the regional district’s ability to raise sales taxes for the duration of the Pasco tax, likely 20 years, because they share the same taxing authority.

Tri-City voters have never approved a public facilities request. In addition to the failed regional effort in 2013, Kennewick voters rejected a tax request to expand the Three Rivers Campus three times, most recently in 2017.

Mid-Columbia lawmakers are divided on the aquatics center, or “PFD” bill.

Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick and Rep. Skyler Rude, R-Walla Walla, joined Jenkin in voting yes on HB 1499.

But Reps. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, and Joe Schmick, R-Colfax opposed it in the House. Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Yakima, opposed it when it was in the Senate Local Government committee.

The 2019 regular session ends April 28.

This story was originally published April 12, 2019 at 5:06 PM.