Response letter to request for opinion on use of Capital Improvements Fund for purchase of Sheriff's Department vehicles
Office of the Attorney General
March 6, 1984
Mr. Alan R. Hancock
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
Island County Courthouse
Coupeville, WA 98239
Dear Sir:
We are in receipt of your letter dated March 2, 1984, requesting our opinion regarding the use of tax proceeds derived from a county real estate excise tax imposed pursuant to RCW 82.46.010.
In posing your question, you have focused on the term "capital improvements" and have asked whether that term ". . . could be broadly interpreted to include vehicles . . . -"; i.e., additional vehicles for the county sheriff's department. As we read the applicable statutory provisions, however, it would appear to us that the critical term is not "capital improvements" but, instead, is "local improvements." See, specifically, the final sentence of RCW 82.46.030 (2) which reads:
-
These capital improvement funds shall be used by the respective jurisdictions
for local improvements, including those listed in RCW 35.43.040. "
(Emphasis supplied )
In turn, RCW 35.43.040 lists the kinds of "local improvements" which fall within the purview of that statute. That listing of authorized local improvements seems to us to be limited to the various kinds of things which may be done to a tract or parcel of tangible real property as an improvement thereto.
Accordingly, without regard to the abstract question you have posed (i.e., whether vehicles constitute capital improvements), we would find it most difficult to support the critical proposition here; namely, that such vehicles qualify as "local improvements" as that latter term is used in RCW 82.46.030(2), supra, and in RCW 35.43.040.
It is hoped that the foregoing will be of assistance to you.
Very truly yours,
Philip H. Austin
Senior Deputy Attorney General
(206) 753-6205