On July 23, County commissioners will have a public hearing onthe formation of a public facilities district. If it is formed, thePFD would automatically receive a small slice of sales tax revenuecurrently flowing into state coffers, but enough to provideVancouver $500,000 annually toward the ongoing operation andmaintenance of a convention center.

The date of the meeting is important because the district mustbe created by July 31 in order to get the tax revenue. If ithappens, the city will likely get the money, because even thoughthe county could use the money for other things instead, the staterequires the money go toward a project of $10 million or more andone that will be underway by Jan. 1, 2004.

Vancouver created its own public facilities district in 1999 tofinance the special events center project south of Esther ShortPark. The economy has since caused revenue from the district tofall well below projections, forcing officials to shelve theirplans for the events center.