Snohomish County executive announces $3B two-year budget with no planned layoffs

(The Center Square) – Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers has announced his proposed 2025-2026 biennial budget that avoids layoffs under tight financial circumstances.

The proposed budget totals $3 billion over the next two years, with the proposed general fund budget set at $699.8 million. The budget set for 2025 and 2026 each are lower than the total budget in 2024, which totals approximately $1.67 billion.

Somers blames the state’s 1% annual cap on property tax increases and expiring American Rescue Plan Act dollars drying up for the county’s budget woes.

The 1% cap means that the gap between growing inflation and the allowed revenue increase widens. Somers said that the county has to find revenue and savings between $10 million and $15 million every year as a result.

Snohomish County has relied on allocated ARPA dollars since 2020. Somers said the federal funding helped bridge county challenges and avoid layoffs while maintaining services.

“We have inflation impacting our bottom line, the end of pandemic relief funding, a systemic budget gap, and a growing population to serve as the county approaches 1 million residents within the next 16 years,” Somers said in a news release . “The proposed budget prioritizes maintaining staff and service levels in the face of financial strain.”

Despite budget concerns, Somers’ proposed biennial budget does not include any layoffs within county departments. However, the county can only partially support funding three new positions critical for public safety and operations out of the general fund budget, according to Somers.

“I know that there are real needs and that every department, office, and agency could serve the public better with more staff – but we should not hire people today that we may need to lay off tomorrow,” Somers stated in his budget summary .

Notably, the proposed $699.8 million general fund is 73% of Pierce County’s. That is another western Washington county of similar size.

Somers’ proposed budget dedicates 75% of the $699.8 million general fund toward public safety. In 1998, 56% of the general fund budget was spent on public safety agencies.

Somers wrote in his budget address that the shift of 20% means that other general fund departments have been squeezed for every bit of efficiency while the county prioritizes public safety.

The Snohomish County Council is expected to approve the 2025-2026 budget by the end of November.