Worried about layoffs, almost 100 Snohomish County employees packed a brown-bag lunch Wednesday to hear the latest details on the county’s ongoing budget crisis.
Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon issued a stern warning last week that the county would be laying off employees. And he repeated his dire prediction this time directly to the county’s rank and file, but couldn’t say exactly how many won’t have jobs next year.
Still, county staff cuts will be deep, he said.
“I don’t want anybody to be caught by surprise,” Reardon said.
Some in the crowd wore green buttons reading “I am a budget priority,” a reference to Reardon’s efforts to develop a priority-based budget for 2005.
Others asked if the county would consider offering employees early retirements, or reduced hours, so fewer people would lose their jobs.
“Everything’s on the table,” Reardon said.
County officials will better know how extensive layoffs will be when the proposed 2005 spending plan is finalized by late September.
What’s already known, however, is the depth of the budget hole the county is facing.
With the costs of providing services outpacing incoming revenues, the county faces growing general fund deficits in coming years. If the county continues on its current spending path, future deficits could grow from roughly $645,000 next year to almost $40 million in 2009.
Many county employees meeting at the First Presbyterian Church of Everett Wednesday wanted details on the new five-year forecast, released last week, that has reignited discussion of the county’s budget woes.
For those who will remain on the job, though, some county employees want to know how the county’s budget crisis will hurt their benefits or cost-of-living raises. Reardon said earlier that the number of employees let go will depend in part on how benefits packages and cost-of-living raises are structured.
Roger Moller, a truck driver for the public works department and president of Local 109, a union that represents about 370 of the county’s roughly 2,700 employees, said county workers have seen their health care benefit costs rise rapidly in recent years. Three years ago, his family had full medical benefits with no monthly premiums. Moller’s premium payments have now hit $196 a month, and deductibles also have risen.
“We’ve been shouldering part of the responsibility,” Moller said. “How much more do they want us to give?”
It’s not just county employees who have questions about the budget problems. County Council members grilled finance director Roger Neumaier this week about the latest financial forecast, recalling numbers were starkly different when they approved the 2004 budget last year.
Then, the council was told the county would have reserves of $5.7 million in 2005, and that the budget would hit a low point of roughly $880,000 in reserves in 2007 before the budget balance rebounded.
Much has changed in recent weeks. There are firmer numbers now on what it will cost to run the new county jail when it opens. That’s the main reason behind the county’s red-ink future.
Work already has begun to bring next year’s budget in line. The county executive started a strict hiring freeze July 1. And on Wednesday, the County Council asked Reardon to prepare a plan to build the county’s savings account back up to 11 percent.
Reardon has asked the County Council to create a savings plan made up of two new reserve funds, including a “rainy day” reserve that couldn’t be tapped unless a supermajority of the council votes to remove money from it.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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