What
is the escrow account?Why
is there a big fuss about it?What
do the records show?
Total spending from escrow account from Oct. 1, 1999,
to Dec. 31, 2000:
$262,830.36
Total spending from escrow account from Oct. 1, 1999,
to Dec. 31, 2000:
$280,381.14
Ladner
District 3
Total spending from escrow account from Oct. 1, 1999,
to Dec. 31, 2000:
$179,093.44
Martin
District 4
Total spending from escrow account from Oct. 1, 1999,
to Dec. 31, 2000:
$132,915.69
Connie
Rockco
District 5
Total spending from escrow account from Oct. 1, 1999,
to Dec. 31, 2000:
$118,026.30
District 1
District 2
District 3*
District 4*
District 5*
* Current supervisor first elected in 1999.
Top 10
vendors
&
recipients
Click on district numbers on map
What exactly is the escrow account?
It's one mil of tax money, which generates about $1 million a year from the county's 90,000 taxable households, businesses and land. The escrow account, which sometimes exceeds $1 million in a given year, is about 1 percent of the county's annual budget of more than $100 million. The state requires counties to hold one mil of taxes in escrow until the Tax Commission is satisfied with each county's tax rolls, then allows the county to spend it. Many counties, state officials said, simply add the taxes back into the county's general fund. But the fund has evolved into a catch-all for the Harrison County Board of Supervisors.
Why is the escrow account an issue?
It is
against the law for an individual Harrison County supervisor to control
how tax dollars are spent. The Board of Supervisors should work as a
unit to manage tax dollars on a countywide basis. It should set policies
and leave day-to-day decisions on purchasing to professionals hired by
the board.
The $1 million-a-year county "escrow account" appears to
circumvent, at the very least, the intent of the law.
If a citizen were to attend a public meeting and watch the board vote to
buy something or give escrow money to people or groups, it would appear
the board is voting as a whole to manage the "escrow account"
on a countywide basis.
This is misleading. The county keeps two sets of escrow books.
The citizen at the public meeting would have really seen a supervisor
picking a group or project to support in his or her district. A group
that, hopefully, will remember that supervisor at re-election time.
When asked repeatedly by The Sun Herald, the county supplied its
"official" escrow ledgers, which show the board follows the
law's requirement to spend funds on a "unit" basis, meaning
all supervisors approve of outlays from one common account.
But when the newspaper filed a public records lawsuit, the county handed
over its second set of escrow records, which show supervisors splitting
the fund and spending it on a "beat" basis, meaning they share
the fund equally among their districts, with each supervisor controlling
his or her portion.
What do
the escrow account records show?
The records linked from this page are presented as the county supplied
them, and contain misspellings. The county administrator said some of
the records may not match what the county actually spent. But most do.
Although some escrow purchases the county made during the time period
don't show up in these records, they provide insight into how individual
supervisors prioritize government spending for their constituents.
Apparently, supervisors have the discretion to spend their share of the
$1 million escrow tax on any individuals, clubs, churches or other
groups they choose.