Snohomish County residents share their budget priorities

LYNNWOOD — The audience listened Monday evening as Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon summarized the county’s budget challenges — then they decided what they would do if they were in his place.

People could choose to put extra sheriff’s deputies on the road or use more taxpayer money for parks. Protect programs for the elderly or cut services to a bare minimum. Lay off employees or balance the budget by raising taxes instead. Votes from hand clickers appeared on a screen within seconds.

“I was surprised there weren’t more people here,” said Martha Clatterbaugh of the Bothell area, one of a dozen participants.

The exercise was the first of five meetings that Reardon has scheduled throughout the county. While Clatterbaugh found it useful, she also said Reardon and other county leaders could have done a better job teaching participants about issues they were asked to vote on.

Reardon’s office plans to compile the responses to gauge the public’s priorities. The information will influence Reardon’s decision- making as declining revenues force him to trim the county’s approximately $200 million operating budget in 2011. About three-quarters of that amount goes to the criminal justice system.

“(What) we heard will help us make decisions in a very tough budget,” Reardon said. “The thing that stood out to me is the willingness to support tax increases for specific things.”

In response to one question, half of the audience favored spending more money on parks and a third thought current parks spending adequate, with the remainder split between those opposed or undecided. Nearly two-thirds of the participants said they would support a levy for more parks funding.

There was a meeting scheduled Tuesday in Arlington. Three others are scheduled for the coming days: