Yellow Pages
Skagit County’s budget problems could take a lot of the fun out of this summer.
The county will eliminate 29 positions in the next month, including 21 through layoffs, to balance the budget, county officials announced Wednesday.
Budget cuts won’t be finalized until June 2, but the number of positions to be cut is unlikely to change between now and then, Budget and Finance Director Trisha Logue said.
Some employees already have been told they have lost their jobs. The Parks and Recreation Department will eliminate four and a half out of 17 positions.
The Parks Department will drop its recreational offerings other than sports. Gone are summer youth programs, organized hikes, exercise classes and trips to regional points of interest, including the Cascade Loop Winery Tour. The Clear Lake Beach Triathlon is canceled, and there will be no lifeguards or concessions at Clear Lake this summer.
“We just don’t have the horses to pull the cart,” Parks Director Bob Vaux said.
Construction will proceed this year to cover the tennis courts and upgrade the ballfields at the Skagit Valley College campus. That Parks Department project, funded mainly through state grants, is not affected by the county budget.
Planning Director Gary Christensen said immediately after a meeting between department heads and county commissioners Wednesday that he didn’t yet know how many employees in Planning and Development Services would lose their jobs. Six positions in the department were lost at the end of 2008 to help save $500,000. The latest round of cuts will reduce the department’s budget by another $300,000.
The cuts are likely to mean slower service in the permitting office, Christensen said. Work may be suspended on some long-range projects, including a land-use plan for Guemes Island and a plan to set aside open space in and between urban growth areas, the director said.
The Sheriff’s Office must figure out how to save $96,000. Sheriff Rick Grimstead said he should be able to do so without eliminating a deputy.
“There are other areas we can cut before getting to that,” Grimstead said.
Large shortfalls in sales tax, timber and investment revenues have created a $2.9 million gap in the $49 million general fund budget, leaving officials with no choice but to make mid-year cuts.
“It’s not a fun job, but we have to do it,” Commissioner Ron Wesen said. “These are not easy decisions.”
There could be another round of cuts but probably not until the end of the year when the 2010 budget is written, Commissioner Sharon Dillon said.
Dillon said she would like to have some assurance that county income will rebound.
“Do we want this to be the last time? You bet,” Dillon said. “Until we get that assurance, I can’t say at all this is going to be the last time.”
The latest sales tax figures weren’t promising. Sales tax revenue dropped 14.7 percent in April compared to the same month a year ago. The overall sales tax decline is 11.2 percent for the first four months of the year.
Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt spoke optimistically to department heads Wednesday.
“Our community will recover. There’s a lot of things being done locally by a lot of our local businesses,” Dahlstedt said. “Better days are ahead of us.”
