Proposed ‘03 budget before Shoreline City Council

Published 12:28 pm Thursday, February 21, 2008

Shoreline City Manager Steve Burkett proposed a $44.5 million budget for 2003 to the City Council Monday that includes a one percent levy increase but decreases the property tax rate. The budget also recommends a 20 percent increase in surface water fees and a switch to hourly rates for recreation rental fees.

The proposed balanced budget breaks down to a $25.4 million operating budget, $10.5 million in capital improvements and about $8 million in transfers from general to capital, roads, street and surface water funds.

The proposed budget is 1.4 percent greater than the 2002 budget, and looks at spending 4.4 percent less on operating funds, but 27 percent more on capital funds. That capital increase is due to several projects that will be ramping up, including the Interurban Trail, Aurora Corridor and several surface water projects, Burkett said.

The budget proposes a one percent property tax levy increase which results in decreasing the city’s property tax rate from $1.47 to $1.36 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

The owner of a $222,000 home currently pays about $2,948 in property taxes, of which $317, or 10.8 percent goes to the city. The rest goes to schools, the fire district, King county, the library district, emergency medical services and the port. If the council approves the proposed rate, the owner of a $222,000 home would pay about $301 to the city, or $16 less than this year.

The proposed budget also recommends a 20 percent increase in surface water fees, increasing a single-family residents fee from $85 to $102 a year. That’s the rate unincorporated King County residents currently pay the county, said Patti Rader of the city’s finance department. That money would go to drainage improvement projects such as the Ronald Bog drainage work slated for 2003.

The proposed budget calls for five additional employees for the public works and attorney’s offices, a 1.4 percent market adjustment for salaries and a 17 percent insurance premium increase. The proposed budget would put Shoreline at about two and a half employees per 1,000 residents, Burkett said, which is less than most surrounding jurisdictions. Edmonds has 2.9 employees per 1,000 residents, Mountlake Terrace has 4.6 employees per 1,000 residents, and Lynnwood five per 1,000. Shoreline has 128 full-time equivalent employees.

Major changes in the proposed operating budget include a decrease in jail costs of $84,000 and an increase of 1.1 percent or $78,000 in the city’s police contract. It includes eliminating one street crime detective position and adding a traffic deputy.

The budget proposes a reduction in programs such as the sub-area plan, technology plan and on-call professional services including street sweeping, saving about $187,000.

The budget also proposes dipping into reserves to cover several one-time allocations: $1 million to the City Hall project, $505,000 to an emergency contingency fund, $51,000 for the purchase of two maintenance vehicles and about $26,000 toward starting up costs for the new employee positions.

While Burkett’s budget is balanced, in the long term, the situation may get worse, he told the council.

If the city maintains current services, revenues and expenditures and the economy doesn’t improve, the reserve will be used up by 2008, Burkett told the council.

The council will conduct public hearings on the 2003 proposed budget on Oct. 28 and on the proposed property tax and levy on Nov. 12. the council is slated to adopt the property tax levy Nov. 12 and the 2003 budget on Nov. 25.