The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – Owners or representatives of five local businesses were up after midnight on Jan. 1, not only to celebrate the new year, but also to make funding commitments to help improve downtown Dayton. As a result, The Dayton Development Task Force is set to receive $85,000 in 2018 through the Washington State B&O Tax Incentive Program for historic downtowns in the state.

Dayton Chamber of Commerce Director Andrew Holt also serves as manager of the Dayton Main Street Program on behalf of the Dayton Development Task Force. Holt said that he and other business representatives logged in to the Washington Department of Revenue website in the first hours of the year to lay claim to a limited financial resource offered to Main Street Programs in the state.

The following businesses made financial commitments to Dayton's program for 2018:

Columbia REA - $50,000

Banner Bank - $20,000

Puget Sound Energy - $8,000

Elk Drug - $4,000

State Farm Insurance Dayton Office - $3,000

Total contributions for 2018 - $85,000

The contributions to Dayton's Main Street Program can be made any time in 2017. Participating businesses will receive a credit on their 2018 business and occupations taxes equal to 75% of their financial commitment. So a business that contributes $1,000 to the program in 2017 will receive a $750 reduction in their 2018 tax bill, making their net contribution $250.

However, the program has a state-wide cap for contributions of $1.5 million, and commitments are accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis during the year the contribution is made. As the number of Main Street Programs has grown around the state, the demand for participation has grown far beyond the program limit. Hence the midnight rush on Jan. 1 to make commitments for 2018. Each individual program has a contribution limit of $133,000.

"The statewide cap was reached by 7 a.m. New Year's morning," Holt said. "Luckily, Dayton got almost all of the commitments made by businesses in before the limit was hit."

This is the fourth year the Dayton Development Task Force has participated in the B&O tax incentive program, and the $85,000 in contributions will be by far the largest total so far.

The Task Force will use the funds for a variety of projects within a defined boundary around downtown Dayton. Past projects using B&O funds have included helping pay for the new public restroom near the historic depot, a tourism signage project which will soon result in new wayfaring signs downtown, and helping pay for marketing downtown Dayton by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.