Many of our local families are struggling with the impacts of the current economy. So is your local county government. For years Island County’s essential services have been funded primarily with unstable sales taxes and interest revenue from investments. When the national credit bubble burst, this revenue stream collapsed along with it. As a result, since 2008 the county has reduced services to our community to meet the $4.2 million shortfall – cutting over 60 positions and streamlining our functions.

Additional cuts to balance the budget will impact public safety and other essential services to levels which are dramatically less than we are used to on our islands.   Unless revenue is stabilized, this downward trend is projected to last for at least the next five years.  Passing Proposition 1 will correct this situation. Please attend the next public forum on this topic to learn more at Oak Harbor’s Skagit Valley College, 6 p.m. on July 13th.
 

Consider the impact to our community.  Unless Proposition 1 passes, there will be  fewer deputies patrolling our neighborhoods,  “minor” crimes like petty theft, vandalism and speeding won’t get prosecuted. Public health services programs for young children and seniors will be reduced impacting our most vulnerable neighbors. For a complete description of the impacts, visit the county website, www.islandcounty.net

Right now Island County taxpayers pay the lowest property tax rate in the entire state for the County Current Expense levy, which funds basic government services.  Proposition 1 will raise that rate by $.16 cents per $1,000 of valuation – about a 3% increase in your total property tax bill, and still the second lowest of the state’s 39 counties. This will increase taxes for an average homeowner by $3-$4 per month, or $40 per year for a $250,000 property. This measure will provide $2 million in additional revenue to fund essential levels of services for our community.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions and a full presentation is available through the county website. I encourage you to visit and review the important information provided, then please share this information with others.

The outcome of the August vote on Proposition 1 will decide which direction our island communities will go: deeper reductions to essential services or stabilized funding to hold the line at the current reduced levels of services. Your vote on August 17 will be critical. Please mark your calendars now and remind your family and friends as the date approaches.

It is your county. It is your choice.

Island County remains in a sustained budget crisis and is about to hit a financial wall.
 

This critical, ongoing challenge is traced to the national economic recession and Island County’s past budgetary reliance on revenues from new housing construction. State Initiative 695 and Initiative 747 added to the financial “perfect storm”, creating a budget gap which now compromises the future financial solvency of the County.

Initiative 695 reduced funding for law and justice and public health. Initiative 747 limited the County’s property tax levy from increasing by more than 1%, while costs increased an average of 3% between 2002 and 2009. County government can no longer largely base its budgets on growth in sales tax revenue and other revenues from new construction to fund essential services. Its financial solvency is threatened and will be in peril without prudent and responsible revenue adjustments.

This economic situation exists despite already reducing expenses by $4.2 million, which is about 20% of the Current Expense Fund. County funding methods previously allowed by the state – sales taxes, real estate excise taxes, investment income, and property taxes – are no longer sufficient to sustain even the most basic of county services closely connected to quality of life.

Basic county services in jeopardy include law enforcement, courts, public health, roads, environmental protection, community planning, elections, public records, courthouse hours, staffing and computer technology, animal control, parks, senior services, WSU Extension. Cutting just the last two doesn’t solve the problem of keeping up with inflation, it would have negative social and economic impacts to our community, and cost taxpayers more in the long run. We would need to cut $5 million more than that over the next five years to avoid using up all our cash reserves. But there is no place left to cut.

As mentioned, expenses were cut by $4.2 million or approximately 20% of the Current Expense Fund between 2008-2010. The County workforce was reduced by over 50 positions. Work hours were reduced for many positions. Offices shortened their hours open to the public as a result of fewer employees. Health insurance benefits were reduced for all elected officials and non-union employees. Cost of living increases were eliminated, up to three years for some. Commissioners reduced their compensation by 10%. Elected officials made donations to the County and eliminated travel reimbursements. Fees for service were adjusted where prudent to recoup the cost of doing business. Energy consumption was reduced by 30% with estimated savings of $50,000 annually. Facilities were consolidated. The County partnered with South Whidbey Parks & Recreation, avoiding possible state closure of Deer Lake, Lone Lake and Goss Lake park facilities, and volunteers in a new Adopt-a-Park program stepped in to help maintain county parks.

The financial shortfall for 2010 will exceed $1.2 million and five-year financial forecasts show that despite rigorous budget reductions, Current Expense Fund expenses will continue to exceed revenues by over $1.8 million per year, completely exhausting Island County’s cash reserves by 2014 and leaving the County’s elected officials unable to provide fundamental support and services required by law.

To protect the financial viability of the County Current Expense Fund, the Board of County Commissioners will ask August 17 Primary Election voters if they wish to set the county’s regular property tax higher than the current limit otherwise allowed by state law. While the 2011 tax rate would be 59-cents per $1,000 of assessed value – the lowest rate in the state, with only five of 39 counties under $1 – the Board seeks voter approval of a 16-cent increase, bringing the levy rate to 75-cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

The proposed increase would generate approximately $2,059,776 additional revenue for 2011. For the four years following 2011, the proposition would also allow a 1% increase each year or a percentage increase tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area, whichever is higher.

Revenues from the property tax increases, if approved by voters, would be used for the limited purposes of retaining public safety and other essential services, and, secondarily, gradually replenishing the County’s contingency cash reserves.

While this request is neither comfortable nor popular, and understand it comes at the most inopportune time, it would be negligent to not inform islanders of the facts so that they can make informed decisions about the future of their government services.

Happy Independence Day, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to publicly celebrate our independence and freedoms.

There is much to celebrate and much more to look forward to. Our roots in democracy and freedom are long and strong. We all know it, and we all feel it.

There is something else many people feel at this point in our history: As good as this nation is, as wonderful as our island community is, we know there is even more work to do, just like our forefathers.

Generations before us went through monumental challenges during the 1760s’ American Revolution, the 1850s’ Civil War, the 1920s’ Great Depression and World War II.  We continue to face similar challenges today, although, for most of us, not as severe.  Some of us experience this in negative terms, as an unraveling or a conspiracy. Some experience it as the logical outcome of greed or ill-conceived policies.

Whatever it is, just like our forefathers claimed, we are constantly guaranteed the right to protect or recreate a stronger America whenever we can make it truer to all humanity’s dreams of freedom and independence. That is one of the best definitions of America: We, as a People, can always grow and be better, if we so choose, because America is ours and we are a free people.

Of course, as we all know, freedom only comes with several other human character traits.

Independence Day is also about courage and bravery, revolution, reform, and sacrifice. It is the latter – sacrifice – and service, too — that I celebrate today. Sacrifice and service is best exemplified in our nation’s warriors – and they certainly merit our sole, undivided attention on this day and every other.  But I also celebrate today people like Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, who has dedicated her life to serving the people of Stanwood-Camano and the 10th Legislative District. I celebrate people like the ones I work with everyday at the Island County Courthouse, true public servants who do the job of three people after taking cuts in pay and benefits. And people like Camano Islander Greg Gilday who planted the seed and led the way to Rotary Adventure Playground here at Freedom Park along with a long list of people who showed us all what we can do together when we ignore our differences, roll up our sleeves and go to work: People like

Joyce Dunn, Carol Stillian, Cindi Wickstrom, Debbie Phibbs, James McCafferty, Mike Nestor, Myra Reinhardt, Randy Heagle, Robert Wickstrom, Theresa Metzger, Whitney Warner, Megan Gilday, Terry Aschenbrenner, Robyn Klundt, Bud Nestor,  Don Maile, Tracy Tifffany, Matt Carr, Chuck Shufreider, Rick Bentley, Jim Hall, Mike Saylor, Skip Ingraham and dozens more.

Their hard work dramatically illustrates our ability to combine talents and accomplish feats no less remarkable than our honored forefathers who we also celebrate today.

Community projects, whether they are building a playground or rebuilding a nation, require massive sacrifices from people willing to put community ahead of self.

Throughout history, right up to this year at this park, communities all over the globe have thrived after people like us made new, unwritten social contracts with each other. By doing so, they overcame challenges once thought insurmountable. They used a formidable challenge or crisis to elevate themselves and their community to a higher standard of civilization.

This is what I hope we will do in the years ahead, each in his or her own way, getting involved in positive, constructive ways, taking our rightful places in America and knowing that we are free, but the quality of life we seek is not. It had a price at the beginning of this country and it has had a price at every crossroads America has come to and will come to throughout history. While we celebrate all the American heroes who have brought us to this point, you and I are now the American heroes we wait for today.

I wish you a carefree Fourth of July, and hope you will join me next week in embarking on — or renewing — a lifetime commitment to positive service and sacrifice for this community we call Island County in the United States of America.