A projected $2.2 million windfall from the state Department of Transportation in sales tax payments for work on the west end of the Hood Canal Bridge between now and 2007 has Jefferson County officials wondering how to spend the bonanza.
Around $1 million in sales tax revenues also could be forthcoming to the city of Port Angeles for construction of the bridge’s graving yard as well.
Jefferson County Treasurer Judi Morris, in a letter sent to county commissioners, said policy in the past has been to handle one-time, specific event or “windfall” revenues for special purposes.
She said this method doesn’t “distort historical data or establish a false expectation of ongoing revenue.”
A document prepared by Morris shows the sales tax money to be arriving in bits and pieces.
Jefferson County received $131,120.80 in 2003, and $129,827.31 through the end of July.
Department of Transportation spokesman Lloyd Brown said no money has been paid to the city of Port Angeles for work done at the waterfront graving yard, where the concrete pontoons and anchors for the east-half bridge replacement will be built.
He said the city is owed about $1 million and that paperwork is holding up the payment.
Because the most expensive part of the bridge replacement project is on the eastern part of the bridge, sales tax revenues to Kitsap County will be about seven times more than what Jefferson County plans to get.