LAKE STEVENS – The City Council tonight is expected to consider a $9.1 million budget for 2007 that adds 12 new employees and pays for new equipment, including police cars and street sweepers.
The proposed spending plan would be a 23 percent increase over the $7.4 million 2006 budget. It reflects the city’s growth by annexation, city finance and administration director Jan Berg said.
Since January, the city’s population grew by about 2,200 to about 9,400 people, after the city annexed 855 acres at the north end of the lake.
On Dec. 20, Lake Stevens will go up by another 3,600 people to about 13,000 when the city finalizes the Frontier Village annexation to add 708 acres on the west side of the lake.
In 2007, the city hopes to bring in as many as 2,500 more people and 730 more acres by annexing the Soper Hill and Eastlake areas. Signature drives in those areas are under way right now.
Annexation drives in the southern and southwestern part of the lake also may begin next year, annexation coordinator Carl Nelson said. The population in those areas is about 15,000.
In 2006, the city began to add staff to provide services to the newly annexed areas, Berg said. The council has authorized the city to hire 10 police officers, two planners, three administrative staff and three public works employees this year.
In 2007, city officials want to hire 12 more people, including more police officers and a city administrator.
Berg said more city employees are the main reason for the nearly 32 percent increase in the general fund, the money that pays for most city services.
The 2007 proposed general fund budget is about $5.3 million, up from $4 million in 2006.
The city has been saving money over the last five years to pay for additional services brought on by annexation. Still, it likely will have to borrow about $316,000 in 2007 to pay the bills, Berg said.
That’s because revenue from sales and property tax takes time to kick in from newly annexed areas, she said.
It could take as long as a year for the money that has been paid to the county to be collected and transferred over to the city.
The borrowed money will be repaid quickly once those revenue streams kick in, Berg said.
In 2007, the city’s general fund revenue is expected to go up 85 percent, from $2.9 million to about $5.5 million. Much of that new money – about $1 million – comes from building permits for residential building projects, Berg said. The remainder comes from sales tax revenue from Frontier Village businesses and property tax revenue from the north lake area.
The 2007 budget is an extension of a careful plan put in place several years ago, Mayor Vern Little said.
Still, with added spending, people in all parts of the city will see more and better services, he said. People living in recently annexed areas will see the biggest difference.
“In the new areas, they’re going to see improved service,” Little said.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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