Pasco board floats idea of sales tax increase for aquatic facility

After watching from the deck chairs for a couple of years, Pasco is ready to dive back into a proposal for an aquatic facility.

Members of the Pasco Public Facilities District board have renewed talks about building a tax-subsidized public indoor swimming pool and multi-use center.

This would be the third time voters are asked to support an aquatic facility. But unlike the prior two attempts, this would be for a sales tax increase specific to Pasco.

“We’ve been patient. We’ve been listening and we’ve been waiting to see how the Tri-Cities, the city councils and the other two facilities districts react to what happened before and the direction they’re going,” said Mark Morrissette, Pasco PFD board president.

“Based upon what we’re seeing and reading and hearing, we want to take a second look at a project for Pasco,” he said.

In 2008, a $5 million pool bond before Pasco voters failed to get the 60 percent supermajority to pass. However, city officials saw some hope in that a majority, at about 54 percent of the voters, were in favor of the property tax-supported issue.

In 2013, the Tri-Cities Regional Public Facilities District — largely at the urging of the Pasco PFD — put a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax increase on the ballot, but it failed to get approval from all three cities. Pasco came in above 50 percent, but Kennewick and Richland rejected the effort.

The board has been discussing a potential project for the past six months and figures it is time, Morrissette said.

“When you consider the Tri-City population, and the number of people born and raised in the Tri-Cities who moved to other parts of the country, when they come back home this would be a great thing to go to,” Morrissette said. “And for people who are looking for a place to go visit in the desert, why not the Tri-Cities?”

“We think this would fit in, this would be a natural extension for the Tri-Cities in our regional attraction to the Pacific Northwest,” he added.

A special Pasco PFD board meeting is scheduled 4 p.m. Feb. 23 at Pasco City Hall, 525 N. Third Ave., to review a consultant’s proposal and vote on whether to take the next step.

The meeting is open to the public.

If the board votes favorably, it then will take three to four months for the consultant to develop a plan and do cost, feasibility and operational analyses, said Deputy City Manager Stan Strebel.

Since the board is in the early stages of organizing the effort, it has not narrowed it down yet to say if it would be an aquatic center or commercial water park or even a multi-use community center with recreational facilities.

The board is looking for feedback from the consultant on how much revenue could be generated from a Pasco sales tax, and what kind of project the city can afford with that cash flow, Morrissette said. That means securing enough money not only to build the facility, but to sustain operations.

According to state Department of Revenue numbers from 2014, a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax increase in Pasco — meaning one penny added to a $10 purchase — would bring in $1.016 million annually.

The state numbers show a two-tenths of 1 percent sales tax increase would generate about $2.033 million annually.

Instead of starting from scratch, the board would rely on the artist rendering from the 2013 regional vote, Morrissette said.

The conceptual design then included an indoor area — open year-round — with a 25-by-25-meter competition pool, warm-up pool, surf simulator, slides, an activity pool, a leisure pool and a river channel.

Outdoor elements in that design included a wave and leisure pool, river channel and slides. Those elements were to be available seasonally.

“I think it’s fair to say we haven’t drawn any line through any consideration or any option,” he said. “We don’t want to ignore what’s been done. It’s the jump-off point from there.”

Pasco City Councilman Tom Larsen has said he wants to hear that the project involves “other things besides swimming pools.”

The city council ultimately will decide if an aquatic/recreational facility goes on the ballot because the PFD board does not have taxing authority.

The city acquired 13 acres off Sandifur Parkway in anticipation of the 2013 vote.

That is no longer a viable site because it is “being used for better commercial purposes,” Strebel said at a recent council meeting. He could not be reached for comment for this story.

However, the city has other options in west Pasco, including near Broadmoor Boulevard, which would make the facility centrally located within the Tri-Cities and accessible by freeway.

Pasco Mayor Matt Watkins pointed out at a recent council meeting that 10 years ago, Pasco and the other cities all questioned if they could independently support a new facility without needing to pool their resources. The steady growth in Pasco over the past decade has changed that equation, he said.

If the PFD can offer a plan to build, manage and maintain a facility that would be placed in Pasco, but benefit the region, Watkins said he would be in favor of it.

Councilman Saul Martinez said that if the Pasco PFD recommends to the council a viable project, he too would support it.

“I think our community has spoken, and I think it’s time that Pasco steps forward and does what our community has been asking,” Martinez said.

He noted that Pasco has demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with other cities, but nothing more has happened in terms of a joint effort.

The Kennewick City Council has expressed support to seek voter approval of a sales tax increase for a $35 million theater-anchored overhaul to the Three Rivers Convention Center campus. It could be on the ballot as early as August.

An election win would gut the Tri-Cities Regional Public Facilities District by preempting its ability to levy a sales tax of its own.

Richland has no plans to advance any public facility beyond The Reach interpretive center, which opened in 2014 in Columbia Park.

“I think there comes a time when time is ticking and we need to move forward,” Martinez said. “I’m excited. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing what our facilities district is going to present to us, and hopefully we can move forward and this year make a decision on where we’re going.”

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Pasco board floats idea of sales tax increase for aquatic facility."