Mayor: Tough choices must follow no vote on Everett tax

By Cassie Franklin / For The Herald

Since I took office as Everett’s mayor in 2018, the question of how we continue operating as a responsive and responsible city government, providing essential services and supporting a reasonable quality of life for our growing population, without adequate revenue, has weighed heavily on my mind.

Every year, we have looked for solutions to the worsening budget deficit, which I inherited when I became mayor. In early 2018, I issued a budget directive asking for cuts and efficiencies to address the persistent structural deficit the resulted from the statewide Initiative 747. In 2019, I welcomed external recommendations through my Fiscal Sustainability Advisory Committee.

And over the past six and half years, we have done the work; making cuts, streamlining operations, improving efficiencies and pursuing other sources of revenue. I implemented grant writers in several departments of the city securing any funding available to better this city. These improvements have helped our staff manage their increasing workloads and improved access to information for the public, but technology cannot replace hard-working public servants.

This year, my administration restarted earnest discussions with the City Council identifying several options to address the budget deficit.

After months of review, our Council had the courage to place Proposition 1 on your Aug. 6 ballot. Proposition 1 was our first attempt toward sustainable funding and addressing the long-term budget deficit, but the response we heard from our community was no. And though I’m disappointed by the outcome, I respect the democratic process.

Nearly all cities, counties and other taxing districts in Washington have similarly struggled under the state’s 1 percent limit on annual property tax levy increases, which prevents the crucial revenue we use to fund core services from keeping up with inflation. To overcome the 1 percent cap, our peer cities have regionalized services such as libraries, fire and EMS. Other cities bring levy lid lifts before their voters on a regular schedule to maintain funding for core services.

Cities are legally required to balance our budget each year. Inflation impacts our city’s budget just as it hits each of our household budgets. It increases costs by 2 percent to 4 percent (or more) per year and cities have very few options for bringing in revenue, none of which are as significant, stable or equitable as property taxes.

Our community is growing, the demand and need for services is growing along with it. Unfunded mandates add unexpected new funding requirements; further straining our already tight budgets.

I think former Council member Jeff Moore put it best during the September 2020 Council Budget Workshop, “We have a responsibility upon ourselves to make the tough decision — even if it means we don’t get re-elected — to do something significant. We have to ask our citizens to pay for what they expect, and we haven’t done so.”

Over these past six and a half years, I’ve led this community through truly unpredictable and unprecedented times: a global pandemic, the tragic line-of-duty death of an officer, economic downturns, massive reductions in public services, growing behavioral health needs, the fentanyl crisis and more. Leading during uncertainty requires someone who can roll their sleeves up, work hard, consider different perspectives and make decisions based on what is best for the entire community.

With difficult decisions ahead of us, it’s more important than ever that Everett has city leaders who are willing to be forthcoming with our residents on our budgetary reality and make the tough choices necessary.

We will continue working with staff and our Council to develop my 2025 proposed budget. In the coming weeks, our focus will be to identify over $12 million in further cuts. Community input will be important. We will be launching a community outreach process to hear from you. Your input will help shape the proposed budget that I will deliver to the Council in October.

None of this is going to be easy, but we remain committed to serving this community with dedication and transparency, doing everything we can to maintain services and strive for a better, more financially sustainable future for Everett.

Cassie Franklin is mayor of Everett.