If a Washington State county can operate on lesser funds than is annually collected by the road fund levy, road funds can legally be SHIFTED to the current expenses account.

A Washington State county can also legally DIVERT virtually any amount of the road fund to the current expenses account.

SJC’s road fund history shows $3,956,000 SHIFTED from the road fund to the current expenses account since 2002, meaning they collected more in the road funds than they needed for roads. That’s almost $4 million they could have spent on road and marine projects. The current expenses fund could be used for any legal purpose, but why would they shift that amount IF they used the money for the same road projects it would have been spent on if the money had remained in the road fund?

But that’s just the SHIFT amount. SJC road fund history shows $17,491,907 DIVERTED from the road fund to the current expenses account since 1972.

Bottom Line: A total of $21,448,358 has been SHIFTED and DIVERTED from the road fund to the current expenses account since 1972.

And now SJC is asking for a major levy base increase in the road fund when they have been legally siphoning road fund money to the current expenses account for some 50 years.

That also begs the question: if the road levy is approved, are the shifting and diverting actions over, or will the additional money raised by the road levy continue to be a revenue stream from the road fund to the current expenses account?

Robert Dashiell

Orcas Island