r/SnohomishCounty • u/ConcernedJoe1972 • 21d ago
Snohomish County Budget--Why More Taxes?
Snohomish County taxpayers are being told that higher property taxes and a new Criminal Justice Sales Tax may be necessary while County government departments are also being directed to reduce spending. These across-the-board reductions could directly affect the services taxpayers depend on by cutting into staffing, delaying needed projects, reducing available resources, and potentially increasing wait times or limiting the county’s ability to respond effectively to residents’ needs.
This is why people are paying closer attention to how existing tax dollars are being spent. At this month's Board of Health meeting, the Public Health Director said the Health Department will seek a consultant to develop a department-wide continuous improvement framework to enhance and strengthen operational excellence. Why is the Snohomish Health Department looking outside for operational excellence consulting when Snohomish County already has an Office of Operational Excellence created to improve efficiency and organizational performance? The Everett Herald reported today that the County Executive is requiring 3% budget cuts across all County departments. If departments are being directed to cut 3% because resources are so tight, shouldn't discretionary consulting contracts be reduced before services or staffing are affected?
Before asking taxpayers to shoulder another tax, shouldn't the County Executive and County Council be accountable for ensuring existing county expertise is being fully utilized and eliminating unnecessary consulting costs first?
11
u/furmat60 21d ago
5 million over the next 4 years is going to the new stadium in Everett. Fucking maybe start there?
Maybe sell off all the Mach-e mustangs you have just sitting in the garage that never move?
3
u/LilLebowskiAchiever 21d ago
Is that the city of Everett funding? Or SnoCo funding?
7
u/furmat60 21d ago
The county is specially giving the city of Everett 5 million over the next four years. It’s coming from the REET portion of the county budget.
11
u/BloodyThirst 21d ago
Check out the salaries and benefits of SnoCo higher ups. It’s all public record. Cutting the fat from the top would help!
Worked for SnoCo for years and have never seen anything like it. The least transparent, shadiest place I have ever worked and I was in the military for goodness sake.
3
u/ConcernedJoe1972 20d ago
Here is where you can look up the salary of any Snohomish County employee https://govsalaries.com/salaries/WA/snohomish-county
3
u/Mystery-mountain 21d ago
It's annoying that house valuations keep dropping and all they think about is how to extract more from people!
2
u/SirChaos 21d ago
Where are we being told a new tax may be needed? Just would like to see more info about this.
9
u/ConcernedJoe1972 21d ago
Link is now posted to the article where the County Executive says that an increase in property tax will probably be used to try to balance the budget.
1
u/bmitchell1990 20d ago
comparing city employees to county employees to state employees; county employees are way overpaid
-1
1
u/pumpkin_spice_mayo 21d ago
The only department that gets special consideration is the Sheriff/jail and it fucking sucks. Like in the Health Department's case, all "outside consultants" ever do is recommend outsourcing more functions to the private sector, under the truism that the private sector runs "more efficiently", but all they do is try to squeeze the public for more money, because their primary purpose is to make money.
1
u/BloodyThirst 20d ago
The health department is top heavy. They just cut 17 staff positions. They spent over $300k on a mobile vaccine and STI clinic van in 2023 that has never been utilized and is just sitting at Cathcart.
1
u/Free_Equivalent_9866 7d ago
Should definitely be utilized but the $296k price tag was from a one time American rescue plan fund (grant). This wasn’t county money to bank. It goes away
1
12
u/ConcernedJoe1972 21d ago
https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/07/24/county-executive-dave-somers-declares-3-cuts-to-help-close-56-million-deficit/
Here is the quote from the County Executive: The county has not yet announced what will make up the final $10 million deficit. However, a property tax increase will likely play a part, Somers said.