12/12/2007: "CC Passes 53+ Million County Budget"

It was not easy, and even as the Council attempted to wrap up and pass the 2008 budget , new requests for more money were made by county departments. At the end of the day -with a deduction here and an addition there- the budget for 2008 was passed.

The changes in the budget as approved by the Council included additions of a 3% Cost of Living for Elected Officials; Education Incentives for Deputies; 10K for GMA attorney; 5k for Prosecutor intern; $5k subsidy to Orcas Farmers Market, and 20K for an Assessor position; and an elimination of a $1 million dollar Public Works request (partly for fuel depots), for a grand total of $53,056,035.00.

Other changes in the final budget were to make no changes in the Owner Builder Ordinance fees , but to increase other land use and building permit fees by 5%. And to increase solid waste fees by 7.5% . (new fee schedule

Councilman Alan Lichter expressed repeated concerns about the financial condition of county government, and cautioned his fellow commissioners to be careful and thoughtful about granting too many requests, particularly when they come in at the last minute. “this County Council does not seem to have ‘No’ in it’s vocabulary,” he said, and added that they should take a “very conservative view on the budget.”

Lichter told the Council that “I don’t have any problem pulling funds this year”, and Councilman Gene Knapp and Rich Peterson said they also had concerns about the financial impacts of the budget, but Knapp said “the county is the fastest growing county in Washington”, and implied that this was related to the budget crunch they were facing.

Rich Peterson showed some frustration with the process, and said that while he was “sympathetic to Alan’s concerns, I have confidence in Pete Rose (the County Administrator) and Milene (the Auditor)” that they had properly analyzed the requests and approved those they felt were appropriate; but added that the Council had their work cut out for them on future budgets. Knapp supported Peterson’s statements, adding that he thought the two had done an outstanding job.

Councilman Bob Myhr, Howard Rosenfeld and Kevin Ranker sided with Peterson and Knapp in showing a willingness to move forward with the proposed budget, as well as the new requests recommended by staff.

After asking for the hearing be continued for one week to give time for further review and new public input, but failing to obtain support from the other Council members, Lichter joined the vote to make it a unanimous decision.

Chairman Myhr noted the 2008 multi-million dollar increase in the budget over last years budget means the “reserves one year from now will be $1,000,000.00 less than they are now’; and added “that is my worry, my concern.”

The Council agreed that in the following year they needed to work on finding solutions to the lack of funding available to them. But former County Commissioner John Evans had testified during the public hearing portion that unless they look at issues of efficiencies, and if they fail to set-up bench marks of performance to allow evaluations of “the performance of the various departments,” then next year they will be “right back in the same situation again”.