Notes From Everett City Council Meeting

There were a couple of items of note at tonight’s Everett City Council meeting.

The council got its second budget update for 2017. There is still a gap of nearly a million dollars that needs to be closed before the budget is balanced. A workshop next month will likely lead to finding mutual agreement on closing the gap.

A couple of items of interest…As the city looks out five years, the structural budget deficit still looms large with 8 figure losses showing in the fifth year. Also the finance manager reported that the Everett Fire Department will need to come before the city council for approval for $250,000.00 to buy more locution software for all of the Everett Fire stations. Emergency communications hardware and software shortcomings continue to cause issues for Everett’s police and fire departments.

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson says he wants the State legislature to raise the property tax cap from 1 percent to at least 2 percent and an adjustment for the future. He stated the sales tax increases can’t be used to continually try to fund the mandates coming from the State along with the needs of cities.

The Snohomish Health District made a presentation asking Everett to consider imposing a $2.00 per resident fee on itself to help fund services. That would mean an annual contribution of about $212,000.00. The Health District is asking the same $2.00 per head of all of the other cities in the county. Snohomish County ranks 34th out of 35 counties in Washington State when it comes to funding public health. Mayor Stephanson said he would like to see other cities pledge to donate before committing Everett but did put a placeholder in the 2017 budget for the contribution.

One of the bright spots in tax collection for Everett has been legal marijuana. The city expects to get about $100,000.00 this year as its share of taxes on legal pot.

The city council unanimously passed the noise ordinance bringing Everett into compliance with State regulations.