County council expects 20 percent decrease in revenue

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Whatcom County Council has proposed goals it would like to see county executive Satpal Sidhu incorporate in budget discussions scheduled for July 8. In the meeting, which was rescheduled to incorporate the council’s goals, the executive’s office will draft a budget to be resubmitted to the council based on revised revenue estimates, according to the Whatcom County Executive’s Office website. The goals take into account a probable loss in revenue due to the economic effects of Covid-19.

During a virtual budget meeting on June 23, the council discussed the need for the county executive’s office to devise a supplemental budget for 2021-2022 that would project a possible 20 percent decrease from 2019 revenue. That much of a decrease would be “a worst-case scenario,” council agreed, but necessary for the executive’s office to consider.

Tyler Byrd, councilmember and chair of the finance and administrative services committee, led the discussion on budget priorities and goals using a document called “Frazey’s additions to Byrd’s priorities” found on the Whatcom County Council website. The document refers to Carol Frazey, a fellow county councilmember.

Councilmember Rud Browne said he would like to see the executive present a 2021 budget using the most current revenue projections and include an alternative budget that would suggest possible cuts in the event that revenue is lower than expected.

“I want the finance department to use the best data available to establish what they think the budget should be, but to include in that the contingency of what happens if [revenue] goes down by 20 percent,” Browne said.

The supplemental budget would detail necessary budget cuts, which could include laying off department employees, Browne said.

The request for a supplemental budget passed with a 6-1 majority, councilmember Todd Donovan opposed. Donovan said the council was being disingenuous by proposing goals with numbers that they have little control over.

The council hopes the county unemployment rate will be 5 percent or lower by the end of 2025. The county unemployment rate was 17.2 percent as of June 3, according to the Federal Reserve Economic Data website.

“I’m voting no because you’re accepting an unconsciously high rate when you should be shooting for 2 percent,” Donovan said.

Byrd said he set the goal of 5 percent because he thought it would be an attainable starting point to decreasing an unemployment rate that is the highest in decades due to Covid-19 effects on the job market.

Other goals that were discussed and approved included achieving a balanced and affordable housing market with a vacancy rate between 5-7 percent by the end of 2023 as well as investing in upstream crime prevention and interventions in lieu of costly remediation strategies including incarceration.

Council also requested the health department to provide what measures would be needed to do 300 Covid-19 tests a day. They also asked the department to contact Mike Hilly of Emergency Medical Services to see if Medical Reserve Corps professionals are available to assist the department’s testing capacity. The Medical Reserve Corps is “a national network of volunteers, organized locally to improve the health and safety of their communities,” according to its website.

Whatcom County Council meets virtually most months on Tuesdays every two weeks. The next meeting is on July 7. Visit whatcom.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx to tune in.

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