[Op-Ed by James Mayhew, Mayor of Snoqualmie. Views expressed are those of the author, not Living Snoqualmie. You may submit letters to [email protected].]
Necessary work is increasingly going undone in Snoqualmie. My proposed 2027–28 City budget addresses the most pressing shortfalls by maintaining police and firefighter staffing, adding capacity to care for our streets and parks, and strengthening the management of City finances and contracts.
Because rising living costs are putting pressure on household budgets, I left other worthwhile work out of the proposal to limit the cost to residents. Asking residents to pay more requires restraint.
The City’s property tax revenue has fallen well behind inflation since voters last approved a levy increase in 2017. The budget uses reserves accumulated in prior years to cover the gap in 2027 and assumes asking voters to approve a levy lid lift for 2028. That would bring the City’s property tax revenue back toward the level voters approved in 2017, adjusted for inflation.
Councilmembers Wotton and Murphy voted against giving residents the chance to decide this year whether to fund these services in 2027. At Monday’s budget presentation to council, Wotton argued that I should remove the proposed 2028 levy revenue and instead identify cuts, saying, “It’s not our job to find where cuts need to be made.” Murphy called it an “out-of-balance budget” because it depends on voter approval. That description is wrong. Residents can clearly see what service levels I am proposing, what they cost, and how I propose to fund them, including the levy that would require their approval.
Removing that funding assumption would mean cuts of more than 10 percent to services supported by the City’s general fund. Councilmembers cannot deny residents a vote on funding these services and leave someone else responsible for the consequences. If they oppose giving residents that choice, they should tell residents which services they will reduce instead and what the effects will be. Residents deserve the chance to vote on funding those services before council makes those cuts.
Council will review the budget over the coming weeks, and we will hold community meetings to hear what services residents value and what they are willing to pay for. I hope council will give residents that choice.
Jim Mayhew
Mayor of Snoqualmie
Comments
Aside from reminding you that the City already “lets” residents decide who is on the Council to carefully study and vote on these issues on behalf of them, let me fix it for you: “The budget…assumes asking voters to approve a levy lid lift for 2028. ONLY if voters were to vote in favor of a levy lid lift to raise (lift) property taxes above the usual, legally allowed percentage (lid), would it bring the City’s property tax revenue back toward the level voters approved in 2017, adjusted for inflation.” If future voters do not approve of the levy lid lift, we would repeat the dire situation former Mayor Matt Larson once put the City into when he “assumed” incoming revenue from the proposed Salish Expansion project. The project had actually been approved! It then fell through, leaving a hole in the budget the size of a very large amount of assumed revenue from said (now cancelled) project. The 2028 lid lift the Mayor is again seeking doesn’t exist yet, and Council already declined 6–1 to send one to voters. That makes this budget’s assumption weaker than Larson’s! This budget also irresponsibly hires 10+ full time employees, to be paid for by draining our savings in 2027. One of those FTEs would be a full-time Executive Assistant for the part-time Mayor (!). (To my knowledge, our Mayors have always managed well enough without a full time–if any– Executive Assistant.) In 2028, the Mayor would need voters to pass a (property tax) levy lid lift to cover those costs, which is hardly guaranteed. Beck to the drawing board, Mr. CPA!