In the last week I’ve read a couple news accounts about the city’s budget situation.
Both stories were written from the reporters’ perspectives and from interviews of interested parties. So I thought I’d write a little as an interested party and from my perspective.
The city has operated for many years on a budget that has a small margin for error. We are not a city that brings in large sales-tax revenue and, despite what some may think, we don’t have a large property-tax revenue either. With careful and creative budgeting, and some good fortune, we have escaped what I have always believed is inevitable: a large budget deficit.
With high energy prices, slow real estate markets and the downturn in the economy, we have been hit hard by loss of revenues. Sales-tax collections are down close to 10 percent, with a larger drop anticipated; property-tax collections will be down two percent, also trending down; and real estate excise tax collections are down 50 percent. These considerable losses of revenues have a devastating effect on a city that operates on a razor-thin margin between revenues and expenses.
You have heard me say many times that we have no budget fat, nothing left to cut. Unless new revenues are found, we will be cutting entire departments from the budget. I have frozen hiring and asked staff not to spend any budget savings that they have accumulated in 2008, and I have asked departments that are fee-based to be certain they are charging market rates for their services. I have asked the council to implement aid-car fees whenever transport to hospitals is necessary. Those bills would go straight to your insurance carrier, a service that you have been paying premiums on but have never had to claim. I even asked them to reconsider the gambling ban by sending the matter to a vote of the people, but they declined.
Along with other cities, we are studying a regional fire authority that would serve a larger geographical area, operate with less overhead and equipment, and would be a taxing authority apart from the city, similar to the Sno-Isle Library. The cost of public safety services will never go down and will never be cheaper than it is today. A fire authority would slow the rate of that cost. And, by the way, the trucks would still say Edmonds Fire and we would still have our same first-rate fire employees.
If you have any questions or suggestions about the city’s budget, please feel free to contact me at 425-771-0247 or haakenson@ci.edmonds.wa.us
Gary Haakenson is mayor of Edmonds.
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