LYNNWOOD — In April, the City Council approved new taxes on gas, electricity, water and sewer that are expected to make a dent in a projected $5.3 million budget hole.
Monday, the City Council took the next step, agreeing to nearly $3.9 million in cuts, transfers and a hiring freeze within the $91 million general fund. The council hopes the actions will keep the city in the black for the rest of 2010.
“It’s been a long and difficult road,” council President Ted Hikel told the council. “Hopefully, we are putting this to bed tonight.”
The council’s action ended months of often terse and pointed discussions about the city’s finances.
Councilman Jim Smith, a frequent critic of Mayor Don Gough’s spending proposals, again criticized the administration.
“I think the city was sold a bill of goods,” he said. “I wish there was a 12-step program for the city.”
Cuts to eight departments are likely to include elimination of a $74,704 a year administrative services employee, said Vicki Heilman, assistant finance director. Administrative services includes the city’s finance department and information technology.
In all, the council agreed to about $752,000 in cuts to eight city departments. Those cuts, plus $2.3 million in transfers, a $68,000 reduction to travel and training, and $241,000 for the hiring freeze combined with $1.4 million in new tax income are expected to plug the budget gap, Heilman said.
Transfers to the general fund include $1.9 million from the capital and program development funds; $200,000 from the Criminal Justice Fund; $140,000 in interest earned from the equipment replacement fund; and $50,000 from the emergency medical services fund.
Council members began in March looking for ways to trim the budget. In February, they learned that 3.5 percent in across-the-board cuts last year weren’t enough to stop a slide caused to a large degree by a 17 percent decline in sales tax income in 2009.
That same month, city officials presented the council with worst-case, most and least likely budget scenarios for 2010.
Often heated budget discussions followed and finance director John Moir abruptly resigned in March.
That month, a council-hired accountant told council members they should plan for the worst. Another accountant, hired by the city’s main police union, told the council in April that Lynnwood’s financial report was the worst he’d ever seen.
Heilman said a $4.8 million budget gap mushroomed to $5.3 million after officials discovered $500,375 in unanticipated expenditures. Those expenses include $226,000 owed to city engineers from a 2009 contract dispute; $150,000 in jail costs; and $72,375 to hire two temporary firefighter-paramedics.
Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3429; ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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