LAKE STEVENS — Residents will have their second opportunity today to comment on the city’s draft 2004 $6.7 million budget, which city officials describe as a status quo, bare bones financial plan.
The City Council conducted its first public hearing on the budget Nov. 10, and its first reading of an ordinance to adopt the budget, much of which will pay for sewer and street projects. The operations budget of $2.3 million is $200,000 more than last year’s operations budget.
The proposed budget includes no new positions, but does increase a police clerk’s time from 32 to 40 hours per week and provides for 2 percent cost-of-living raises for city employees, said Jan Berg, city treasurer and finance director.
It also includes purchase of a new police car and hiring a consultant in the planning department to work on traffic analysis.
"It’s very lean," Berg said of the budget. "There’s not a lot of new capital projects. We’re just trying to maintain our service level with the decrease in funding."
Four years ago, Initiative 695 limited cities’ property tax increases and that hit Lake Stevens during a moratorium on sewer hookups, which meant no new revenue. The city has managed by tightening its belt and using unexpected I-695 replacement funding from the Legislature.
"We’re doing what the taxpayers wanted us to do. It’s tough, because we don’t want to decrease services."
The City Council plans to vote on the budget at it’s Dec. 8 meeting.
The city was lucky because sales tax revenues were higher and expenditures a bit lower than expected, Berg said. For example, the city recently hired a new police officer, a position that was budgeted for the beginning of the year, saving the city 10 months of anticipated salary. It took a long time to find an officer with the qualifications they wanted, she said.
City personnel also tightened their budgets, saving money by cutting travel expenses, and some expenses were less than budgeted, she said.
Despite declining revenues, the city has managed to slowly build its reserve fund to $1.3 million, which Berg attributed largely to Mayor Lynn Walty and his conservative fiscal policies.
The city has budgeted $350,000 next year for a capital fund project to explore creating a local improvement district to install infrastructure in the city’s industrial area. Upgrading that area could attract new business, jobs and more tax revenues, she said.
The council meeting will be at 7 tonight at the Lake Stevens Community-Senior Center, 1808 Main St.
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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