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Sources behind the questions

Every figure I raise about the Malaga Tax Increment Financing (TIF) proposal traces to a public record. Here they are, grouped by question, with links. Where a source is the Port's own case, I link that too — so you can weigh both sides yourself.

Q1 — The two-county balance

Douglas County taxpayers pay about 30% of the Port's levy. Is there a published two-county accounting of what each county puts in and gets back?

• RECORD Port of Chelan County & Port of Douglas County audited financial statements (WA State Auditor), 2021–2024 — the levy figures ($3.38M Chelan + $1.42M Douglas = $4.79M in 2024).
• PORT CDRPA Finance page — the Port's own levy-rate messaging.
• Wenatchee World, "$1.2M Pangborn Memorial Airport fuel system upgrade," June 26, 2026 — Douglas-side investment.
• Wenatchee World, "Chelan County, CDRPA weigh details of proposed Malaga TIF district," July 16, 2025 — Douglas County TIF context.

Q2 — Whose numbers govern?

The public record contains two acreages, two revenue splits, and impact figures that moved from $50.3M to over $100M. Which numbers actually govern, and can the Port publish one reconciled sheet?

• Wenatchee World, "Chelan County weighs potential revenue loss as port proposes $160M Malaga TIA," June 6, 2025 — earliest figures: $160M generated / $50.3M county forgone / $165.3M offset / 3,326 acres.
• PORT Wenatchee World, "Port 'respectfully disagrees'…," Aug 29, 2025 — the Port's 70/30 split, $103.6M model, $150.8M sales-tax + $71.1M machinery offsets.
• Wenatchee World, "Chelan County commissioners issue statement in opposition," Aug 27, 2025 — confirms the $50.3M → over $100M doubling.
• Wenatchee World, "What is a tax increment area and why should people care?," Oct 22, 2025 — a 65/35 split, a $206,315,240 / 25-year total, and the article itself uses both 3,326 and 3,226 acres.
• RECORD WA State Treasurer's review of the proposed Malaga TIA — flags flaws and inadequacies.
• RECORD The TIF statute: RCW 39.114.010 (definitions / frozen baseline) and RCW 39.114.050 (apportionment / 25-year sunset); created by ESHB 1189 (2021).

Q3 — What's off the tax rolls?

The Port holds parcels across both counties, generally property-tax exempt. What is the whole portfolio worth, and what would it contribute in property tax if privately held?

• RECORD Chelan County GIS — Parcels/Owners layer (owner-name parcel data).
• RECORD Douglas County GIS — Parcels layer (owner, acres, assessed value).
• Interactive parcel map of every Port-owned property: rick4treasurer.org/port.
• The Columbian, "Microsoft to add 185 acres…," April 18, 2024 — example of Port land returning to the tax rolls after sale.

Q4 — Microsoft's Douglas campus is already on the tax rolls

Microsoft's operating East Wenatchee campus sits on the regular tax rolls at $369.7M assessed, paying about $1.25M/yr in county property tax to the normal taxing districts. The same company holds land in the proposed Malaga TIA — Microsoft is only one piece of it, but the cleanest test of the "but for": why would the same company's growth need its value diverted here?

• RECORD Douglas County GIS — the East Wenatchee campus assessed value ($369.7M) and the Douglas Microsoft parcels.
• RECORD Chelan County GIS — the Microsoft parcels in Malaga (Chelan County).
• DataCenterDynamics, "Microsoft to spend $12.5M buying more land in Malaga."
• The Columbian, "Microsoft to add 185 acres…," April 18, 2024.

Q5 — The $4.89M in private grants

The Port's audited statements show $4.89M in "grants from private sources." Who contributed, and what did the money buy or commit the Port to?

• RECORD CDRPA audited financial statements, 2021–2024 (cash basis) — the "grants from private sources" line (BARS account 3670000): $4.23M in 2023, $4.89M in 2024.
• Wenatchee World, "CDRPA takes step to satisfy nearly $5 million grant stipulation," April 28, 2023 (headline matches; article body paywalled).
• KPQ, on the Trades District funding stack (EDA / state / Commerce / CERB) — for contrast, these are government grants, not the private line.

Q6 — Mitigation proportionality

The fire department serving Malaga projects roughly $1.2M/yr in foregone revenue and was offered $135K/yr for three years, conditioned on maxing its own levy. Is that proportionate, and who decides?

• Wenatchee World, "Wenatchee Valley Fire Department opposes Malaga TIF," Nov 26, 2025 — the $135K/yr (2029–31) vs. ~$1.2M/yr loss, and the $12.1M unused levy capacity the Port cites.
• Wenatchee World, "Malaga TIF proposal met with opposition at moratorium hearing," Sept 24, 2025 — the ~$6M NCW Libraries impact.
• PORT Wenatchee World, "Port rejects Chelan County's $37.5M offer," Oct 30, 2025 — the Port's own reasoning and its suggestion that districts raise their levies.
• Wenatchee World, "Chelan County sets new public hearing for Malaga TIF," June 29, 2026 — Port executive director Jim Kuntz says the Port made a new "mitigation proposal" on June 24, 2026 (terms not disclosed).

Q7 — Can the Port even fund this plan?

By the Port's own numbers, $86M — 43% of the $198.6M in planned public improvements — has no identified funding source, and the Port's remaining legal borrowing capacity falls to about $1.6M by 2032, at its statutory debt limit. The State Treasurer's review called this "an incomplete plan of finance" and recommended the Port show how it will close the gap or shorten its project list. What is the Port's plan to fund the missing $86M?

• RECORD WA Office of the State Treasurer, TIF Project Analysis Review — Port of Chelan County, Nov 13, 2025 — flags the "incomplete plan of finance," the $86M (43%) unfunded gap, and remaining non-voted debt capacity falling to ~$1.6M by 2032. OST states it did not independently verify or project these figures; they are the Port's own.
• PORT Port of Chelan County Final Project Analysis (posted on the Port's Malaga TIF District page) — the source of the $86M unfunded figure, the four-series bond schedule, and the debt-capacity table.
• RECORD The TIF statute: RCW 39.114.020(7)(c) — requires the sponsoring jurisdiction to submit its project analysis to the Office of the State Treasurer for review; the statutory basis for the Treasurer's report.

The stress test — where its numbers come from

The interactive stress test applies arithmetic to the Port's own published schedule; it makes no independent forecast. Every input traces here:

• PORT Final Project Analysis, Dec 18, 2025 — all inputs: the four-series bond schedule ($42M/2026, $23.5M/2029, $18M/2032, $22.5M/2035 = $106M par; $183,219,963 total debt service, Ex. 15–17); the projected increment assessed value and levy rates, 2027–2051 (Ex. 8, 10); the $210,632,625 revenue forecast; and the development composition (Ex. 4: $1.48B known projects, $1.47B speculative data centers, $0.66B speculative other — 59% with no signed tenant). The "real property only" exclusion of servers/equipment and the 4.6%/yr appreciation assumption are the report's own (pp. 5–6, fn. 3).
• PORT Same report, Appendix C (Ex. 20–25) — the Port's "conservative" downside: speculative data centers removed, revenue 37% lower, $64M par across two series ($39M/2026, $25M/2029), $124,710,325 total debt service.
• RECORD WA State Treasurer's review, Nov 13, 2025 — independent context on the plan of finance; OST notes the figures are the Port's own, unverified.
• RECORD Port of Chelan County Resolution No. 2025-07, "Designating a Tax Increment Area," adopted Dec 23, 2025 — the governing document. §3 designates 3,334 acres and states the assessed value of taxable real property inside the area is $46,241,764 (plus ~$4,352,434 in personal property), against a Port-wide assessed value of $21,664,297,253 and the statutory cap in RCW 39.114.020(1)(c)–(d) of the lesser of $200M or 20%. This is the source for the "99% of the forecast is new construction" figure on the stress-test page. §3 also notes that the tax allocation base value — the actual frozen baseline — was set separately by the County Assessor when the area took effect June 1, 2026; obtaining that certified figure is an open records-request item.
• RECORD WA Dept. of Revenue, Special Notice — Legislative changes to local tax increment financing, June 2, 2026 — the mechanics of budget-based levy rates inside an increment area, the levy-limit add-back, and the statutory assessed-value cap. Source for the rate self-correction table on the stress-test page.
• The full workbook behind the tool — every formula editable: Excel download. The assessed-value "miss" percentages are hypotheticals for stress-testing, not predictions; coverage ratios (min ~1.02× base case, ~1.01× conservative) are computed directly from the report's own revenue and debt-service columns.

Standard I hold myself to: a figure is listed only when a primary record or news report backs it, with specifics. Editorials show that an argument exists, not that it's true. Where my research is still incomplete, I say so on the main page. — Rick Viall