You can click the link to read Mayor Ray Stephanson’s budget address to the Everett City Council Wednesday night…Everett 2012 Budget Address
For the first time in ten years, the Everett City Council failed to automatically approve a 1% increase in the property tax. That came after Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson made his annual budget presentation to the council. The Mayor included the 1% increase in his figures for the 2012 budget which means if the council fails to approve the tax increase, the Mayor will have to come up with three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00) to re-balance the budget. Council members Brenda Stonecipher and Drew Nielsen both said they had recently heard from citizens who opposed having their property taxes increased while the assessed value on their homes was going down. Stonecipher questioned passing the revenue portion of the city’s budget while not yet working out the expense side while Nielsen said he felt the Everett City Council has not exercised proper oversite. Nielsen also said, “We don’t have enough information to do this.” That brought a swift rebuke from Everett City Council President Shannon Affholter who questioned why these issues weren’t brought up during previous hearings. That led to more back and forth between various council members until the council voted to revisit the issue next week at which time Mayor Stephanson said he would provide a list of what he would recommend be cut if the council didn’t approve the 1% increase in property taxes. Here’s the Mayor immediately after the meeting…
Editor’s Note: Sorry for the poor video framing. I’m still working on adding video to the stories that I post here and it is a work in progress.
November 2, 2011
Everett Government