The number of cops on the street is not a mere measure of need these days, nor of crime.

It’s an economic barometer for cities across Skagit County, as are bumpy roads, battered soccer fields and, of course, government budgets.

“The city of Burlington has never experienced a budget reduction such as I have proposed tonight,” Burlington Mayor Ed Brunz said recently as he presented his final 2010 budget, which slices spending by millions.

Slipping services and worn-down infrastructure also represent choices, not just math, made by officials like Brunz.

“In the end, what I cut was what I thought the city could lose and still provide the services, maybe not as well as we had before, but with the staff that would remain,” Brunz said.

In months of budgeting, Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley, Mount Vernon and especially Burlington officials had to prioritize, picking what, and who, they could save and which services and employees would not be kept into 2010.

In Burlington and Sedro-Woolley, the position responsible for code enforcement and animal control was cut. Police officers will take on animal control duties, and the planning departments will handle code enforcement next year.

“We are not just going to abandon the laws,” Sedro-Woolley Police Chief Doug Wood said. “But sometimes, response times may not be as great. Sometimes we may have to put off picking up a dog.”

“That is just part of the current economy,” he said.

A lesser part of less

Collectively, the 2010 budgets of Mount Vernon, Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley and Burlington are $26.5 million smaller than those set for 2009. And the budgets were not falling from a peak. Some $8 million in cuts were made between 2008 and 2009.

The four cities’ collective $34.6 million in budget reductions between in the past two years would cover Burlington’s entire 2010 budget and still allow the city to bring back laid off employees.

The cities must do without those millions because of declines to almost every tax they depend on.

Property tax revenues and some utility taxes did increase for local governments. But sales tax — which accounts for 18 percent of Burlington’s 2010 budget, 11 percent of Mount Vernon’s, 7 percent of Anacortes’ and 5 percent of Sedro-Woolley’s — has fallen by 15 percent for the cities between last November and this November, the most recent sales tax data available.

That means cities here are more than $2.3 million behind where they were in sales tax revenues at this point in 2008, and that was a bad year.

Anacortes’ sales tax revenues are down about 23 percent year-over-year, the greatest percentage of any city in the county, but Finance Director Steve Hoglund said larger-than-expected utility taxes filled the shortfall and kept the city from needing major cuts next year.

In Burlington, where a shortfall will have a major impact, the decline breaks down to a drop from about $900 in sales tax revenue per resident in 2007 to roughly $700 this year.

Though some economists say the recession is technically over, cities do not expect much relief next year. Sales tax revenues are budgeted to be about the same, a reflection of business closures and unemployment that is still climbing in the county.

“Really we are going to probably feel the pinch in the city,” Burlington’s Mayor Brunz said earlier this month. “We will make do. We will have to.”

Bumpy roads stay bumpy

Cities across the state reported to the Association of Washington Cities that 2009 has been a bad year, and many are bracing for tough times to continue.

“Many cities’ revenues have declined so precipitously that finance directors regard it as ‘good news’ when local revenues level off and are no longer in a free fall,” a recent association report stated. “And these officials still wonder whether their city has hit bottom.”

At about $34 million, Burlington’s 2010 budget is nearly a quarter smaller than the budget adopted this time last year. Anacortes and Sedro-Woolley set 2010 budgets that are about 16 percent and 15 percent smaller respectively than for 2009.

Mount Vernon’s budget dropped by the least, but even there, a 6 percent decrease spurred layoffs this fall and a major draw-down of the city’s reserves.

Politicians often pledge to cut government waste by combing through expenses line by line.  The reality is cities already budget that way. So a tumbling economy means funding falls for parks, libraries and streets too.

Burlington’s street fund expenditures went from $12.4 million in 2008 to about $3 million this year and only $1.2 million budgeted for 2010. Much of the decrease represents the wrap-up of major roadwork, such as the roundabout on North Burlington Boulevard, but funding to improve existing roads is also down about $200,000, Burlington Assistant Public Works Director Brian Dempsey said.

“We just cut that out hoping to survive for a couple years and then get back on that,” he said.

Cities have decreased street maintenance budgets, meaning road cracks could get deeper, and the eventual repairs could cost more. From potholes to police, spending reductions will come despite future and potential political costs.

Next year, no city plans to lay off police officers on staff. But an unfilled position now may not exist at all next year.

The Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley police departments will each lose an unfilled position next year. In Burlington, the 27 officer positions budgeted for this year will become 25 in 2010, including one saved by a federal grant. Only the Anacortes Police Department is fully staffed and will remain so next year.

Aging cars

Equipment purchases for 2010 were more expendable than officers. Burlington Police Chief Bill Van Wieringen will not replace any vehicles next year.

Sedro-Woolley Chief Wood said he expects to purchase one car, but his department remains behind on its replacement schedule.

“Our repair bills are going up because of the older cars,” he said.

Sedro-Woolley’s Fire Department will get a rare boost. Its budget will increase by about $3 million thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant and loan package for a new ladder truck and fire engine and another federal grant to build a second fire station.

Grants will not stave off the effects of the tight budgets on city employees.

City Hall hours will be reduced next year in Burlington and Mount Vernon, which means reduced hours or pay cuts for many employees. Much of Burlington’s workforce will also pay more toward their own health benefits.

And staffs will be smaller. Mount Vernon will have the equivalent of 203 full-time employees next year, down from 211 in the 2009 budget. Burlington will have 86, down from 96.

Anacortes and Sedro-Woolley will each have the equivalent of almost four fewer full-time employees next year.

Bare bones get barer

The cuts came despite officials’ beliefs that their budgets were lean, even bare bones.

“We have taken a very proactive approach — minimum increase of budget, minimum increase of staff,” Burlington’s former Administrator Jon Aarstad said during a March 2008 interview.

The economy was souring then, but city leaders still talked in terms of increases, or of holding steady, not losing millions in revenue.

Local governments expected they could make small adjustments to weather a lull, or even a recession. At the time, Mount Vernon was starting to see about a 5 percent shortfall in sales tax revenues.

“Our 2008 budget is set so if we would be to look at scaling back on expenses, that would be in the 2009,” Mount Vernon Finance Director Alicia Huschka said in March 2008.

However, by late 2008, worsening revenues required immediate action to control costs — layoffs, program cuts and reduced expectations for 2009.

The budget process never really ended for this year. No one was saying they would wait for the following year’s budget anymore.

In April, just a quarter through the 2010, Sedro-Woolley made nearly $400,000 in cuts, including layoffs and a $21,000 budget reduction for the city library.

Elsewhere too, purchases that were accounted for in the 2009 budget were scrutinized before the check was written. Revenues trended down, and more cuts were made.

Nonetheless, 2010 is expected to bring jarring reductions to city spending, recession or no recession.

Recovery slower for cities

The National League of Cities says local governments experience a lag in recovery because tax revenues arrive months after sales occur. Revenues are dispersed to cities about two months after stores collect them.

The types of taxes cities rely on are also among those hardest hit. Taxes from property sales nose dived, and as a result, so have road projects, which are often funded through those taxes.

Property taxes have not dropped overall because cities decide how much they will collect each year, but the revenue bump cities tend to get by assessing property taxes on new construction has dropped off, mimicking the slowdown in construction.

The National League of Cities study reports that city finance directors across the country predict overall revenues to decline 0.4 percent next year while spending will increase by 2.5 percent, likely leaving city governments with serious cost-cutting issues even if the revenues do start to grow.

The imbalance will also mean less financial security going forward as cities dip into reserves to balance their budgets, according to the study.

Indeed, the four Skagit County cities plan to spend from their reserves, leaving less on hand as the move into 2011, which some expect to prove another difficult year. Mount Vernon has budgeted to spend nearly $500,000 in reserves from its current expense fund leaving about $2.2 left over at the end of 2010. That will cause the city to sink even further below its reserve goal of $3.1 million, or two month’s worth of expenses.

Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris addressed the reserve spending in his budget message, saying the that the city has been saving money for tough times and that this certainly fits that criteria.

* Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .

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