🛑 The State Owes Klickitat $2 Million. They’re Offering Pennies - Klickitat BOCC 3/17

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🏛 March 17, 2026 Klickitat BOCC Meeting

The Body: Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners

The Bottom Line: The County is actively shifting into an offensive legislative posture as it grapples with deep state funding cuts, unfunded mandates, and millions of dollars in withheld gas tax revenues.

The Vibe: Candid, cynical, and frustrated. Commissioners and staff openly voiced their exhaustion with state-level gridlock and the continuous "nickel and diming" of local rural budgets.

Did you know: if you're low on time, you can catch the executive summary at the end of this email.

🗣 Public Comment

• Gabrielle Gilbert announced she has successfully organized a tour of the Families First Daycare Center in Boardman, Oregon (located in the Port of Morrow) for April 15th. The facility is a collaboration between public schools, the county, and the state, and Gilbert invited the Commissioners to attend to help inform the County's ongoing push to eliminate its "childcare desert" label.
• Sherry (Husum) accused the Board of waste and favoritism, specifically alleging that the county is using public tax dollars to upgrade Oak Ridge Road to benefit the Under Canvas luxury glamping development. She also criticized the recent implementation of a 3% technology fee on building permits, framing it as an unnecessary burden on local property owners.
• Roger Nichols questioned why a recently renewed rock mining lease, which he stated was 17 years behind, was settled for only $1,700 without any accrued interest charges.

🧱 Context: The Long Road to Ending the "Childcare Desert"

The upcoming April 15th tour of the Families First Center in Boardman is the latest escalation in a multi-year push to solve Klickitat County’s "childcare desert" crisis, which we started covering with the Childcare Workshop in December. For over a year, advocates like Gabrielle Gilbert have highlighted the stark math facing local parents: while there are roughly 1,046 children aged five and under in the county, there are only 178 licensed spots available, meaning five out of six kids are left without local options.

This momentum grew from a pivotal December town hall where residents identified state building codes and prevailing wage requirements as the primary "red tape" strangling new providers. Most recently, Gilbert challenged the Board's priorities during a debate over courthouse aesthetics, framing the Boardman "Families First" model, a collaborative public-private partnership, as the only proven blueprint for rural childcare sustainability.

🏛 Legislative Update & State Friction

• The Gas Tax Shortfall: The state miscalculated gas tax distributions from 2006 to 2023, resulting in a $110 million statewide error. Klickitat County is owed approximately $2 million. However, the state has only allocated $30 million toward fixing the error statewide through the County Road Administration Board (CRAB), with no interest paid on the withheld funds.
• Public Defense Crisis: The state has implemented new public defense standards that force attorneys to reduce their maximum caseloads from 90% this year to 80% next year, with continued 10% reductions annually. The state did not provide funding to hire the additional attorneys required to meet these mandates. Because of this unfunded squeeze, the county is officially throwing its support behind a WSAC-led lawsuit against the State of Washington.
• New "Millionaire" Tax: Senate Bill 6346 passed, establishing a new tax on individuals earning over $1 million. County lobbyist Zach Potts noted the state is attempting to frame the income as an "excise tax on a transaction" to survive state Supreme Court challenges, utilizing the same legal precedent established by the recent capital gains tax.
• Going on the Offensive: Recognizing that counties have successfully run fewer than 10 of their own bills in the last 30 years, Potts urged the BOCC to start drafting proactive, offensive legislation for the 2027 session. A primary target will be reviving a sales tax exemption for green energy projects.

Klickitat County is effectively trapped in a structural revenue squeeze exacerbated by state legislative maneuvering. The state is consistently passing down unfunded operational mandates, such as the drastically reduced public defense caseload limits, while simultaneously withholding massive sums of miscalculated infrastructure funds. This dynamic forces the county to rely heavily on its general fund to backfill basic state-level responsibilities.

The BOCC's decision to shift toward an "offensive" legislative strategy indicates they are abandoning the hope of state-provided relief and are instead preparing to rely on lawsuits and targeted local bills to protect county assets.

⚖️ The Indigent Defense Crisis:

When the state mandates lower maximum caseloads for public defenders, counties must hire more attorneys to cover the same volume of criminal cases. Because criminal defense is a constitutional right, counties cannot legally refuse to provide it, meaning the ballooning costs must be paid directly from the county's general fund, pulling money away from roads, parks, and other services.

In rural "legal deserts," this crisis is uniquely brutal thanks to the "everybody knows everybody" reality. Small-town public defenders frequently face ethical conflicts of interest, such as having previously represented a key witness, or having personal ties to a victim, forcing them to recuse themselves from a case. When the handful of local defenders are legally disqualified, counties are forced to pay a massive premium to recruit and import private, conflict-free attorneys from outside the area, further draining already strained rural budgets and delaying justice.

🗳️ The Federal SAVE Act & Rural Privacy Concerns:

County officials are closely monitoring this proposed federal legislation, which would mandate strict photo ID and proof of citizenship for voting. Beyond the politics, this act would effectively force small county auditor offices to build and secure massive new databases of highly sensitive personal information.

The Washington Association of County Auditors recently estimated the SAVE Act's unfunded mandate would cost the state between $35.7 million and $39.3 million just to implement for the 2026 midterms. If passed, the logistical and financial burden of updating voter rolls, and protecting that data from breaches, would likely fall directly onto local budgets (and local taxpayers) without federal support.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• Excise Tax vs. Income Tax: The Washington State Constitution technically prohibits a graduated income tax. To bypass this, legislators are attempting to classify income over a certain threshold (like $1 million) as a "transaction," thereby taxing the event of making the money (an excise tax) rather than the money itself.
• CRAB (County Road Administration Board): The state agency that manages statutory requirements and distributes grant funding for county road departments across Washington.

🩺 Public Health & 🏘 Community Development

• Health Funding Slashed: The state's Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) program is facing a $40 million shortfall. While Klickitat County Public Health is insulated through July, budget reductions are imminent.
• Federal Shutdown Impacts: A critical local Incident Command System (ICS) training class for wildfire preparedness was abruptly canceled this week. The ongoing federal government shutdown disabled the FEMA website, preventing attendees from downloading the prerequisite training certificates required to participate.
• Digital Permitting Portal: Community Development successfully negotiated the setup cost of the "SmartGov" public portal down from $25,000 to $10,000. Once approved, the portal will finally allow residents to apply for, track, and communicate about their building permits entirely online.

🚧 Public Works & Infrastructure

• Facility Cost Friction: The county approved a fee waiver for the White Salmon Library for an upcoming youth reading event, but flagged the facility as a financial drain. The county currently loses approximately $10,500 annually to operate and maintain the building (including utilities and labor) while collecting less than $1,200 in rental revenues. Commissioners indicated that well-funded entities, such as the library district which recently passed a levy lift, will likely face fee charges in the future to offset county losses.
• Trout Lake Park Host: The contracted hosts for the Trout Lake Park have backed out and relocated to Arizona. Public Works is urgently attempting to hire a new contractor at $2,100 a month to manage the park, noting that the community reacts poorly when the park is left unhosted.
• Bluff Road Slide: Recent landslides occurred on both Trout Lake Highway and Bluff Road. The county will only be removing the downed trees on the steep Bluff Road site, as fully repairing the underlying infrastructure would require a "multi-million dollar fix".

The county's physical infrastructure appears to be colliding with its financial reality. The BOCC is actively hunting for ways to trim maintenance deficits, pivoting from treating community facilities (like the White Salmon Library) as guaranteed free public goods to analyzing them as heavily subsidized liabilities. As material costs rise and state funds remain locked up, the county is being forced into triage mode. This is evidenced by the decision to merely clear trees rather than execute a permanent million-dollar fix on Bluff Road.

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✍️ Note from the Editor: The Library, the Levy, and the "Double Tax" Trap

If you’ve been following our coverage of the Klickitat County Commissioners lately, you’ve likely heard a recurring phrase: "Well-funded entities." It sounds like bureaucratic jargon, but in plain English, it’s a shot across the bow of the White Salmon Valley Community Library.

At this meeting the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) flagged the library building as a "massive financial drain," noting that the county loses over ten thousand dollars a year maintaining the facility while collecting almost nothing in rent. Because the library district (FVRL) recently passed a levy lid lift, some Commissioners now view them as a "well-funded" partner that should start paying its own way.

On the surface, the County is (as always) worried about the math working out. They are facing a two million dollar gas tax shortfall and an onslaught of unfunded state mandates. They are hunting for every penny. But there is another side to this story.

For decades, the "deal" has been simple and a common breakdown across the US: The County provides the infrastructure (the building), and the Library District provides the service (the books, the staff, the high-speed internet). When voters approved that levy lid lift, they weren't voting for real estate spending, they were voting for more hours, more books, and more youth programming.

If the County forces the library to pay market-rate rent, they are effectively "taxing you twice" for the same roof. You already pay county property taxes to maintain county buildings; if library levy dollars are then sucked back into the County’s general fund to pay rent, that is money being pulled directly away from the books and services the levy was specifically voted in to fund.

In a "childcare desert" and a "legal desert," the library is often the only functioning hub left for our families. As the Board moves into budget workshops this summer, we have to decide if we want our local government to act as a landlord looking for a profit, or as a partner in a vital public service.

The conversation is just beginning. Make sure you’re at the table. If you are concerned about the BOCC's discussion regarding potential fees or cuts to the White Salmon Valley Community Library, here is how you can make your voice heard before the county locks in its next budget:

• Write the Board: If you can't make the meetings, send your concerns in writing. Emails sent to the clerk are added to the official public record. You can email the full board at: bocc@klickitatcounty.org
• Mobilize Locally: Coordinate with the Friends of the White Salmon Valley Community Library and the Fort Vancouver Regional Library (FVRL) Board of Trustees to present a unified defense of this critical public resource.
• Watch the Clock: The BOCC just approved its budget calendar. The time to advocate for community facilities is right now during the summer and fall budget workshops, before the final budget is locked in.

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Executive Summary:

🔎 What Changed

• The Board extended the fee waiver for the White Salmon Library’s upcoming youth event, but placed them on notice that fees will likely apply next year.
• The Board approved advertising to hire a new contracted park host for Trout Lake Park at $2,100 per month.
• Two major infrastructure bids were opened: The 2026 Annual Striping Program and the 2026 Liquid Asphalt supply.

⚠ What Escalated

• State-mandated public defense caseload reductions have officially triggered without state funding, significantly threatening the county's general fund and sparking imminent litigation.
• The state's refusal to fully reimburse Klickitat County for $2 million in miscalculated gas tax revenues is forcing the county to lobby for the funds through secondary channels.

🧭 What’s Next

• March 26, 2026: BOCC Workshop on Short-Term Rentals and Code Enforcement.
• April 14, 2026: Comprehensive Plan "Character Area" public outreach meeting scheduled for Bickleton.
• April 15, 2026: County officials have been invited to tour the Families First Daycare Center in Boardman, OR.
• April 20, 2026: Public hearing regarding the phase two draft of the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) standards.
• May 21, 2026: County tour with the Community Wildfire Planning Center to assess Wildland-Urban Interface fire risks.

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How to Join & Learn More

• Review the Raw Materials: Read the March 17, 2026 Agenda Packet
• Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 9:00 AM.
• Attend in Person: Klickitat County Services Building, 115 West Court, Room #201, Goldendale, WA.
• Attend via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/586587651 Meeting ID: 586 587 651 | Call in: 669-900-6833