EVERETT — On Wednesday, Everett city staff shared preliminary balancing measures it could take while developing the 2026 budget to close another looming $7.9 million funding gap.
Some money-saving measures would continue from the previous year’s budget cycle. The city plans to suspend contributions to its LEOFF fire and police pension funds again — funds set aside for law enforcement officers and firefighters hired before Oct. 1, 1977. The city also suspended contributions to those pension funds last year.
Everett could also further reduce about $1 million of general fund spending on street overlay projects for a second year running. Last year, Everett already cut about a quarter of its general fund spending on street repair.
The city also plans to cut about $300,000 spending on human needs grants. Everett could also pause planned growth to departments’ maintenance and operation funds, saving just over $200,000.
“Not funding M&O growth is very difficult on our teams, but given our limited choices for reductions, we do recommend this again,” city finance director Heidi Brillantes said Wednesday.” We’ve kept M&O flat for several years.”
To help balance the budget, the city plans to use about $4.8 million of remaining one-time COVID relief dollars to close the gap.
Everett used COVID relief dollars for a number of programs since 2020, including pallet shelters, downtown public restrooms, social workers, improvements to digital permitting and re-establishing the city’s chamber of commerce, among other uses. Council members Paula Rhyne and Judy Tuohy expressed hope in using some of those relief dollars for other programs instead of general fund spending, but doing that would mean finding cuts elsewhere in the city’s general fund.
“I would like to see one more hurrah with the money for projects that the city has had its eye on or supporting departments that have been cut drastically,” Rhyne said. “I feel like it’s our last chance to use these one-time federal dollars for good for the city. I understand the need to balance our budget but I would love to see … anything that we can do to better the city, or just something a little bit more fun.”
Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin recommended using relief funds toward the general budget because she doesn’t see where else she can make cuts, she said Wednesday.
“As much as I would love to spend them and continue to invest them in the community in other ways, I don’t know an area of the city that could fathom additional cuts at this point,” she said.
If Everett does use its remaining COVID relief dollars on the general fund, it will have spent about half its pandemic relief funds on internal operations, a lower rate than comparable cities, Brillantes said.
The city also plans to continue using lodging tax revenues to pay for staffing resources at city-led events, use grant funds to help pay for alternative response teams and transfer funds from a criminal justice sales tax to help pay for six employees on the police department’s violent crime unit.
The spending cuts and use of COVID relief dollars would close the pending $7.9 million deficit, Brillantes said.
Franklin has previously said that because of the deep cuts the city made in the 2025 budget, cuts to city staffing will not be required to balance the 2026 budget.
Everett, like a number of other municipalities across Washington, has faced consistent budget challenges for years following a voter-approved initiative limiting the amount cities can increase their property tax levies to 1 percent year-over-year, lower than the rate of inflation.
As property tax is one of the primary and most consistent forms of revenue for Everett, city staff have previously said, that stagnation means cuts become necessary every year — and get more difficult as services continue to shrink.
Everett now has fewer employees per 1,000 residents than it did 10 years ago. In 2024, the city cut 31 jobs via a mix of buyouts, eliminating unfilled positions and layoffs. Twenty-four other workers saw their hours reduced or faced mandatory furloughs. Those cuts impacted city administration, the City Council, legal, finance, facilities, code enforcement, police, communications, human resources, libraries, economic development and emergency management.
As a result of the cuts, the library was forced to reduce its open hours, and the city’s park ranger program was cut entirely.
The city undertook those cuts after voters shot down a property tax levy lid lift in August 2024 that would have increased the city’s levy rate from $1.52 per $1,000 of assessed value to $2.19 per $1,000. For the average Everett homeowner, property taxes would have increased by about $336 per year, according to city estimates. Opponents of that levy said the city was overspending and needed to increase efficiency.
Between 2018 and 2025, the city closed cumulative budget deficits totaling about $100 million, Brillantes said Wednesday.
Franklin has previously said the city will work to “right-size” its services to meet the financial resources available. In the future, that could mean cutting additional programs or regionalizing services like the fire department, library system or transit services.
Budget development will continue until December. The council is expected to vote on the final budget on Dec. 4.
Next year, Everett expects the need to close a $14 million general fund deficit in its 2027 budget, city projections show.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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