In a story this week, Washington State Wire talked to the Yakima County treasurer and Pierce County deputy finance director about how their revenues fared through the pandemic. As with state revenues, although there was a lot of uncertainty last year about how the pandemic would affect revenues, the two counties ended calendar year 2020 with higher revenues than in 2019.

In Yakima County, treasurer Ilene Thomson said that she had been “concerned about sales tax revenue,” but it didn’t decrease. Indeed, according to financial data from the State Auditor’s Office (SAO), sales tax revenues in Yakima County increased by 14.7% from CY 2019 to CY 2020. Thomson told the Wire that she expects revenues to increase by 11.5% from 2020 to 2021.

Yakima County’s governmental revenues increased from $139.1 million in CY 2019 to $151.3 million in CY 2020—an 8.8% increase. Intergovernmental revenues (a component of total governmental revenues) for Yakima County increased by 73.8% from CY 2019 to CY 2020, on the strength of federal relief funds.

The Pierce County deputy finance director, Wolfgang Opitz, said, “We ended up with quite stable, almost dead-on the forecast prior to the pandemic.” The SAO data shows that Pierce County’s governmental revenues increased from $645.4 million in CY 2019 to $839.9 million in CY 2020—a 30.1% increase. That strong growth was driven by intergovernmental revenues, which grew by 155.0% (thanks to federal relief funds). Sales tax revenues increased by 5.7% in Pierce County.

The story mentions the hotel/motel sales and use tax: In Yakima County, these revenues dropped by 47.5% from 2019 to 2020. In Pierce County, they dropped by 32.2%.

The charts show county tax revenues over time and total governmental revenues over time. Governmental revenues include taxes, licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenues, charges for goods and services, fines and penalties, and miscellaneous revenues.