EVERETT — The Snohomish County Council is set to vote on a $1.5 billion budget funded by tax dollars and federal aid this week.
County Executive Dave Somers proposed the budget Sept. 28, and county council members have been taking a scalpel to the line items, reworking numbers to align with proposed needs. The final budget hearing will be held in-person and on Zoom at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and is open to the public.
Somers’ proposed budget focuses on public safety with 75% of the general fund budget going toward law and justice agencies. This includes raising the salaries of sheriff’s office deputies, buying body cameras, establishing a new sheriff’s office precinct by Paine Field Airport and funding two new positions for deputy prosecuting attorneys.
The county’s general fund is supplemented by a historic $85 million in federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act, also known as ARPA, bringing the budget’s bottom line to $1,517,046,604.
After a little over a month of deliberations, Snohomish County Council members have created a council amendment package, or a list of changes with notes and conditions, that they plan to pass unanimously.
Contentious amendments will be proposed separately.
Council Member Nate Nehring plans to propose cutting $970,000 in expenditures to offset the need for a 1% property tax increase. He also plans to propose an amendment that uses ARPA funds to add two full-time social workers to the Human Services Department to work with the Sheriff’s Office of Neighborhoods unit when it is reinstated in early 2023.
Council Vice-Chairman Jared Mead intends to propose an amendment to create an internal work group that would define a job description for a new full-time communications employee, like legislators have at the state level.
Council Chairwoman Megan Dunn will propose adding three temporary assessment technician positions to the assessor’s office to help correct a data mistake that accidentally wiped the secondary owner listed on a property deed.
Wednesday’s meeting will be held at 3000 Rockefeller Ave. in the Jackson Board Room.
Kayla Dunn: 425-339-3449; kayla.dunn@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @KaylaJ_Dunn.
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