Commissioners, Pullman officials discuss tax sharing agreement

Whitman County Commissioners met Tuesday night with the Pullman City Council with a full agenda.

“It is the annual meeting with the Pullman City Council and Whitman County Commissioners to talk about topics of mutual interest,” said Commissioner Art Swannack.

One of those topics included is the agreement to share retail tax revenue from new businesses in the area around Pullman.

The agreement, which was in the works for approximately a decade, became effective July 1, 2015, and calls for the county and Pullman to split retail sales taxes 50/50 and to work together to establish new businesses in the tax sharing area.

The tax sharing area surrounds the Pullman city limits and extends east from the city limits along the corridor of the Moscow-Pullman Highway to the state line.

“That is the agreement that we all signed in July,” said Swannack.

Swannack told the Gazette Tuesday afternoon that the tax sharing agreement calls for a cease in cluster zoning, a practice in which developers can design and place structures in a certain zone. Swannack gave the example of building four houses within 20 acres.

The elimination of cluster zoning, Swannack said, is the final step in implementing the tax sharing agreement fully.

“The last thing we have to do is the change in cluster zoning in the county's area,” he said. “It removes the cluster opportunity zone from within the area of the tax sharing agreement. We are just going through the last part of getting our agreements taken care of.”

Swannack said that area refers to the corridor along the Moscow-Pullman Highway. He added that the cluster zoning topic is on the next agenda for the Board of County Commissioners meeting for Dec. 21 and, if passed, would be expected to take effect Jan. 1, 2016.

“The people wishing to use that have to apply,” said Swannack. “It is still allowed within the tax sharing area until the change.”

Swannack said that some people have applied for the cluster zoning and are still in the process of applying.

“Some people are applying for that, and if they have a completed plan, they can get grandfathered in,” he said. “There are still some applying for it. We have to fulfill our obligations to the person who applies within the time it is said you can apply.”