The Whatcom County jail project is enormous in scope and cost. As County Executive candidate Joy Gilfilen points out, it is the most expensive public project in Whatcom County history.

The current bonding proposals that will appear on your ballot as “Whatcom County Proposition N. 2015-1 Jail Facilities and Sales and Use Tax” will ensure significant interest costs for the 1/10 of 1% infrastructure bond designed for payoff in 30 years or the life of the bond. Since the jail already receives 1/10 of 1% (passed in 2004) and you will be voting on whether to give the jail a third 1/10% of 1% . The 2/10ths of 1% will run on forever even after the the first infrastructure bond is paid off, costing hundreds of millions of sales tax dollars. CPA David Camp has projected data on those costs here. Whatcom County has projections on the sales tax amounts in this presentation here. […]