Marysville mayor gives State of the City address

MARYSVILLE — In an hour-long State of the City address on Tuesday, Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring touted increased policing, road improvements and another year of not raising city property taxes as his major successes over the past year.

He also made number of announcements at the address, including the launch of a new app and the city taking over operations of a county park.

The city’s new app, My Marysville, can alert city staff of potholes or other issues and allow residents to sign up for programs.

The city’s park department will take over operations of Gissberg Twin Lakes Park from Snohomish County, Nehring announced. The lakes, which originated from the excavation of gravel during the construction of I-5, is open for fishing and boating. Two events are already planned at the park for March and May.

Another park, Mother Nature’s Window, is set to open in 2025, Nehring said. The park will feature public access to old-growth timber. The city allocated $1 million toward the park’s design and construction in the 2025-2026 budget.

Public safety is the No. 1 issue in Marysville, Nehring said during his speech. It’s also the No. 1 expenditure in the city’s budget, set to cost over $31 million in 2025.

“There’s really no greater priority than public safety when it comes to talking about the budget,” Nehring said. “When I’m out in the community, when our council members are in the community, we hear about your priority of public safety.”

Calls to police service went down by 0.4% between 2023 and 2024, Nehring said. Crime also went down and police staffing levels increased.

The City Council also approved harsher mandatory minimum penalties for repeat offenders last November. The mandatory minimums require judges to sentence people convicted of four or more “public disorder” crimes in a five-year period — which include theft, vehicle prowling, criminal trespass, public drug use and malicious mischief — to a 45-day jail sentence. Under the law, defendants can request to enter inpatient drug treatment instead of serving jail time if it is determined the person would benefit from treatment.

“We’ve kind of lost, as a society, this idea that you should be accountable for crime. You’re not a complete victim when you commit crimes,” Nehring said. “We believe in good, old-fashioned policing here, holding people accountable for crimes.”

The city also completed a number of major road construction projects over the past year, with more set to finish by the end of 2025.

One of the largest, the state’s construction of new ramps at the I-5 and State Route 529 interchange, is set to finish by the end of 2025. Another project, the widening of a section of State Avenue to five lanes, was completed in 2024. That project began more than two decades ago.

Homelessness is another major issue facing the city, Nehring said. A city program to provide temporary housing, known as the Micro Extended Shelter Homes program, is one of the city’s strategies to combat homelessness.

The program, operated by the Everett Gospel Mission, has served 34 people over the past eight years, Nehring said. Thirteen of those people found permanent housing — just under two people per year.

In terms of housing, however, Nehring said he would rather retain control to decide on density levels locally. The state mandates growth targets which the city must zone for in order to keep up with high growth and a worsening housing affordability crisis.

Nehring said the state’s Growth Management Act will “jam everybody into smaller spaces.”

“When you’re not allowing more land to put people, guess what you do, you allow greater density,” he said. “That’s the only other way to do it, and that’s what our state’s chosen to do. Over time, I would like to see some other strategies looked at.”

Like other goods and services, increasing housing supply reduces demand and brings down prices, experts say.

Regarding the budget, Nehring celebrated the fact Marysville has not raised its property taxes for years, saying the city has a “long-standing history of financial prudence.”

Most of the city’s general government revenue comes from sales tax. It’s one of the few cities in the area that has not raised its property taxes, he said.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.