Lewis County Noxious Weed Control Board Coordinator Bill Wamsley pulls down a large branch of knotweed last October in Centralia.
After a paperwork error accidentally exempted more than a third of Lewis County’s taxpayers from a new assessment to fund the Noxious Weed Board, commissioners will move to correct the mistake and collect the tax countywide.
The $8-per-parcel tax passed by commissioners in October creates an independent revenue stream to fund the Noxious Weed Board, as is the case in most other counties. When removing the board from the general fund, county leaders described the transition as a tax that would be imposed on all county property owners.
Language in the ordinance, however, states that it only “shall apply in all unincorporated areas of Lewis County.” That, according to civil deputy prosecutor Eric Eisenberg, was a “drafting error.”
“I was mistaken on the text of the act,” Eisenberg said. “It said it applied only to unincorporated areas. But all of the materials that we had used to support it were predicated on applying to both (unincorporated areas and cities), and I represented at length in the hearing that that’s what it was supposed to be doing.”
Eisenberg took the blame for the mistake, saying he hadn’t had time to read the text before before the hearing. He said that county commissioners will need to pass another resolution with the correct language to fix the error.
The reworked ordinance won’t affect the revenue brought in by the assessment, because it was calculated based on the countywide tax that will now be imposed. In October, officials said it would bring in about $300,000 to fund the board.
“It’s not any more money, because that’s exactly what all the estimates were based on,” Eisenberg said.
County manager Erik Martin expressed relief that expanding the tax was consistent with what commissioners had told the public.
“The (commissioners’) intent, the Weed Board’s intent, the assessor’s intent — all the information to the public other than this one piece in one place in the document was that it would be applied countywide,” he said. “It was certainly clear that was the intent. The conclusion is that that was just a drafting error.”
The Weed Board provides technical assistance and enforces compliance for landowners who have noxious weeds on their property, as state law mandates property owners must deal with them. By imposing the new assessment to create a dedicated funding source for the board, the county removed it from its already-strained general fund and also gave it a slight funding boost.
In October, board coordinator Bill Wamsley said the funding shift might allow the board to hire an extra staffer to increase outreach.
“A dedicated source of funding for the Lewis County Noxious Weed Board will be a key element to increase the level of management that is needed to make the additional contacts with landowners, for technical assistance and to achieve compliance with the weed law,” he said.
At the time, some residents complained that the new tax was unfair, given that it was the same regardless of property size and weed issues. Others said they wanted to see money go toward weed removal or treatment, rather than the board’s information and enforcement role.
