Sen. Keiser Wants To End Port's Property Tax Authority

The fallout from State Auditor Brian Sonntag's review of past Port of Seattle business practices continues. The P-I reports this morning that:

Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, announced she plans to introduce legislation to repeal the Port of Seattle's property tax authority.

We appreciate our legislators noticing that there's a Port of Seattle at long last, and that oversight has been lacking. But cutting off the property tax? Here's what's at issue, again summarized by the P-I:

That audit, released in late December, found the port had broken state laws and its own procurement policies, wasting $97.2 million in public funds by circumventing public bidding requirements, steering contracts to preferred contractors, and failing to rein in the costs and schedules of construction contracts active from 2004 to 2007. The audit, whose scope did not include proving fraud, found the port "vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse" and has sparked a criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney for Western Washington.

Yes, it'd certainly be great if public funds weren't being used in a careless or fraudulent manner. But the Port has plenty of work to do that benefits King County. It has a new CEO. It has 50 recommendations from Sonntag on improving its transparency. If the state will continue to do its job of oversight, we have a good feeling about how the future might play out.