The Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC) Data and Research Program is a strategic goal of the WSAC Board of Directors. The primary goal of the program is to collect, analyze, and present accurate and factual data in support of the WSAC Policy Program’s advocacy.
In doing so, we try to help inform policy decisions made by our members and legislators which may impact counties. The Research Program is striving to become the central conduit for county-based data and information. To achieve this goal, the Research Program compiles and publishes primary survey data, creates analysis tools and reports to analyze key trends, and organizes links to county data and information from many secondary sources.
The Research Program is also dedicated to helping WSAC prepare training and educational materials that may become necessary throughout the year for our members or other important stakeholders interested in learning about county government.
Counties submit annual financial reports to the Washington State Auditor’s office. WSAC has partnered with FLO Analytics to develop a dashboard, where you can view revenue and expenditure data for all counties, a group of counties, or a specific county for all years included in the State Auditor’s Financial Intelligence Data.
This dashboard shows data that has been collected by the Office of Public Defense (OPD) on county trial court public defense services expenditures statewide between 2010-2021. OPD is statutorily required to disburse state-appropriated funds to counties and cities for the purpose of improving the quality of trial court public defense services.
This report exposes a property tax burden shift from clean energy production facilities to other private property taxpayers that results in higher tax bills for local residents and businesses. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of the root causes behind the property tax issues faced by counties hosting clean energy projects and proposes innovative solutions to support sustainable clean energy growth while optimizing benefits for rural communities.