Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Board also attends virtual meeting concerning Albert Sensors
DAVENPORT—The Lincoln County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution opposing local income tax at their Feb. 22 meeting. The resolution makes Lincoln County the 11th county in the state with local income tax bans, according to the Washington Policy Center.
Other counties with local income tax bans include Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Cowlitz, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kittitas, Spokane and Yakima Counties.
Cities statewide also have local income tax bans. These cities include Grand Coulee, Moses Lake, Spokane, Spokane Valley, West Richland, Benton City, Kennewick, Pasco, Granger, Union Gap, Yakima, Battle Ground and DuPont.
The commissioners also attended a virtual meeting by the Office of the Secretary of State’s Elections department concerning Albert Sensors. Albert Sensors provide network security monitoring and management services and are meant to identify and report malicious cyberattacks.
Former Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who now works for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration, was on the call. Wyman said the Albert Sensor, which was installed in many county elections offices statewide during the Trump administration, is meant to help stop foreign and domestic interference in county elections systems.
38 counties have had an Albert Sensor installed, but now, only 33 of the 39 Washington counties still have it installed.
Lincoln County removed its Albert Sensor after the commissioners questioned how it specifically helps protect local elections.
The presentation from the Secretary of State outlined how the Albert Sensor works, but the commissioners still had questions after a data breach hit the county auditor’s office in Nov. 2020.
“I’m not doubting what it does or that it prevents cyberattacks,” commissioner Scott Hutsell said. “I’m curious how it specifically protects our elections.”
Commissioner Rob Coffman used the chat bar on the live call to pose this question, but it wasn’t answered.
At the beginning of the call, a plea was made for any media logged into the call to log off without reason given. The commissioners were playing the call in their open, public meeting.
Those with outstanding questions once the call ended were asked to submit those via email.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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