EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive John Lovick has unveiled a budget proposal for 2015 that increases spending by 4.6 percent while promising no reductions in public safety and no layoffs of county staff.
The $885.3 million proposal balances its expenses, which includes large capital projects such as the new $162 million county courthouse, with increases in property taxes and the elimination of 19 vacant positions in the county bureaucracy.
The overall budget proposal includes the $230 million general fund, which encompasses most operational expenses within the county government, including salaries. The general fund would rise by 0.47 percent in 2015 under Lovick’s proposal.
Various capital projects funds, by comparison, would rise 157 percent, to $61.6 million.
Lovick highlighted a few programs that will see increased support during a Tuesday budget presentation to county staff and the County Council.
“Our 2015 budget is not a hold-the-line budget like last year. The reality is 2015 will be a challenging year,” Lovick said.
“This is a balanced budget based upon carefully weighed priorities and it is a budget of focused compassion,” he said.
Lovick’s proposal also includes $150,000 in staff support for senior and youth programs, an approximately $500,000 increase to a sidewalk- and path-building program near 19 elementary schools, and $2 million to handle anticipated costs related to recovery from the Oso mudslide.
The county has spent $25 million on slide recovery efforts so far, Lovick said, but the hope is that the federal and state governments will reimburse 87.5 percent of that amount.
Lovick also proposed adding staff to the human resources department, two new pathology assistants for the Medical Examiner’s Office, and 13 nursing positions (already approved by the County Council) for the Snohomish County Jail.
Lovick proposed an additional $1.5 million in funding for capital road projects in Arlington and Darrington. Another $900,000 would be spent on restoration of the Whitehorse Trail, erosion reduction projects, and the future memorial to the slide victims.
He also said the Arlington Family Resource Project, a temporary social services initiative that got started after the slide, would be fully and permanently funded by the county starting next year.
On the revenue side of the equation, Lovick proposed a net 3 percent increase in property taxes, divided into three 1 percent pieces to comply with the law: a 1 percent increase to fund the sidewalk-building program, a 1 percent increase for the conservation futures fund (which is used to buy and maintain open space and farmland), and a 1 percent increase in taxing capacity that the county didn’t use in a previous year, earmarked for the general fund.
Lovick did not specify which vacant positions are to be cut. Earlier this year he asked department heads to plan for 6 percent reductions in their budgets, a move that drew criticism from the county council when he gave nearly a dozen top managers in the county government a 10 percent raise.
On Friday, three members of the County Council sent a letter to Lovick stating that, under the county code, the pay raises were required to be submitted to the council first.
Lovick only alluded to the letter in his presentation.
“We are retaining high-quality employees at recruitment by offering them competitive pay,” Lovick said. “And we have made great strides in creating an executive office and county government that represents the rich diversity of our county.”
After the meeting, Lovick said he’s still reviewing the council’s letter and would respond at a later date.
“So far we have no supporting material justifying the increase,” said council Chairman Dave Somers, who signed the letter, as did council members Ken Klein and Terry Ryan.
Somers said that the next six weeks will be spent trying to get more details about Lovick’s budget proposal.
“One concern I have is that he said there were no cuts to the criminal justice system. That means there are probably large cuts elsewhere, and I need to know where they are,” he said.
“Those positions were doing a job somewhere, so we need to see what services are being … proposed for elimination,” Somers said.
Klein also felt that Lovick’s proposal was “a little rosy” and said he still had concerns about the county’s finances.
He was also an early critic of the pay increases given to top managers in the county when other departments were cutting back.
“Not only is it wrong to do from (appearances), but it’s also against county code,” Klein said.
Chris Winters: 425- 374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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