MUKILTEO — Facing a budget shortfall of $443,000 after the city’s emergency services levy failed in the general election last Tuesday, the Mukilteo City Council is considering budget cuts and eliminating up to eight city jobs.
City Administrator Rich Leahy presented the council Monday night with a menu of options for balancing the city’s 2004 budget.
The list includes $686,500 in possible cuts. The city is also looking at adding up to $700,000 by tapping its construction-related sales tax fund and raising property taxes.
"It’s a fairly excruciating exercise in determining where some of these cuts and revenue increases are going to come from to bridge the gap," Mayor Don Doran said. "We have to make sure we continue to provide the highest level of service that we can."
The biggest savings could come from leaving some job openings vacant.
The council could trim a fire captain, a police officer, a city planner, a utility worker, a financial analyst and two firefighter positions the city was hoping to add, plus some part-time workers.
If the council eliminates all eight positions, the city’s staff would be smaller than it was in 1993. Since then, the city has grown 40 percent, Leahy said.
"We’re now going to be cutting muscle. There is no fat," Doran said.
Also on the chopping block is the city’s popular Lighthouse Festival; large-item trash pickup, which is used by 100 to 150 households; almost all city staff training; and the city’s annual newsletter.
The budget Doran proposed earlier this month factored in approval of the levy. The levy’s defeat means the city has to figure out how to pay the cost of emergency medical services while coping with a budget that’s projected to be $1 million short of last year’s.
The levy would have been used to pay for the city’s current $420,000 EMS contract with Everett and eventually allowed Mukilteo to hire its own paramedic staff. The levy fell 8 percentage points short of passing.
Doran’s earlier budget also proposed increasing property taxes 1 percent, increasing the cost of business licenses 4 percent and increasing a storm-water maintenance fee $1.45 per month.
Those increases are still under consideration. Together, they would raise $272,000.
The city also could use $441,000 from sales tax revenues collected from city development or money from reserves. Last year, the city used $282,000 in emergency reserves to balance the budget.
The council also must consider whether it wants to leave the city a $181,021 cushion of money in next year’s operating budget. If so, that means filling a budget gap of $624,000.
The council is expected to adopt the budget Nov. 24.
The council will continue its public hearings on the 2004 budget Nov. 17. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at Fire Station 3, 10400 47th Place W. in Mukilteo.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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