To translate this vision into a reality, the WSDA would have to become both a physical entity, with the necessary storage, access, and preservation technologies, and also a new system for collecting and processing the potentially enormous volume of records of archival importance. Digital archiving would require a transformation in both the technology and the business processes of record keeping. Both are costly and complex to achieve, requiring considerable financial and political support to develop and operate the WSDA itself and transform the business processes and information flows that provide the content. In the words of the Assistant Secretary of State Steve Excell, it was necessary to “create a tipping point for the cost benefit analysis for the agencies that would be our partners.” That would include convincing the legislature to provide the financial support and the partner agencies to implement the new flows of information. If the value of the WSDA’s new capabilities did not appear to exceed the costs, neither the political support nor the financial resources would be forthcoming.

The financial part of the problem required skillful marshalling of legislative support. Secretary Reed and his staff were realistic in their expectations, given the low priority typically assigned to public records access or digital archiving in the competition for capital funding. So they devised an alternative funding solution. The first part was to add an additional dollar surcharge to the document recording fee collected by the County Auditors. This would provide the revenue for the auditors to access the WSDA’s digital archiving capability without impacting their local budgets. With the help of stakeholders (described below), Secretary Reed persuaded the legislature to approve the additional surcharge, thus creating a revenue stream to support development and operations.⁹ The capital to build and equip the WSDA was acquired by arranging to borrow against this revenue stream in the private capital market using Certificates of Participation.¹⁰ The legislation was approved and the fee implemented by early 2002. Following that, the capital financing of the WSDA was approved in December of that year.