City Finance Director Michelle Meyer presented the City of Lynnwood’s draft 2025–26 biennial budget for public review and comment during the Lynnwood City Council’s Sept. 23 business meeting.

The presentation, which was the topic of a public hearing, included some updates from the initial budget provided to the council Sept. 9. However, it maintains the city’s focus on public services, such as police, public works, parks and recreation and mental health.

Total estimated biennial revenues are $152.2 million and the total estimated biennial expenditures are $156.1 million, Meyer said. Expenses include the police, municipal court, public works administration and engineering, human resources and other public services.

The city’s general fund operating revenues comes mostly from sales tax (46%), followed by fines (12%), utilities tax and franchise fees (10%) and property tax (9%). 

For every dollar of sales tax, the state gets 61.3 cents, Sound Transit gets 13.2 cents, and the city gets 9.4 cents.

Because projected expenses exceed revenue, Meyer has proposed restoring the city’s property tax rate to the pre-COVID level of 57 cents per $1,000 of assessed value for the average home. The rates for 2023 and 2024 are 43 cents and 45 cents respectively. Under this proposal, the average homeowner would see a property tax increase of about $84 annually – or $7 per month, according to the 2024 Snohomish County property valuation. This levy increase would bring the city a total of $6.2 million in 2025 and $6.7 million in 2026.

Like the sales tax, the city receives a sliver –  6% – of the property tax revenue while the Edmonds School District gets 35%, the state receives 29% and South Snohomish County Fire and Rescue gets 15%.

For general fund expenditures, police make up about 43% of the city’s expenses, followed by Lynnwood’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department (PRCA) at 14%, Development & Business Services (DBS) at 10% and debt service at 6%.

With the existing budget, Meyer said that the city is able to fund per biennium:

– 10 police officers ($1.625 million)

– Four custody officers ($863,000)

– Four master custody officers ($920,000)

– 1.5 custodial positions at the Community Justice Center (CJC) ($237,000)

– One court marshal ($300,000)

– Contractual medical services for the CJC ($4.1 million)

The following positions do not have a salary established yet:

– One legal clerk for the municipal court

– One street maintenance worker

– One senior park planner

Two maintenance workers for graffiti remediation positions and one human services coordinator position are not yet funded for 2025. The current budget draft proposes “no new requests for additional funding.” The human services position would cost $302,000 per biennium, while the graffiti remediation positions’ would cost $625,000. These positions are funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) through 2024.

Meyer said that the six-year general fund forecast indicates that the city is getting “out of compliance” with its minimum fund balance policy, which requires a 2.5-month operating reserve in the general fund. “We’re focusing very hard in keeping 2025-26 in the black, getting compliance with that forecast,” she said. “The current version does show going out of compliance for 2027-29. We’ll continue to work on that.”

The council’s next biennial budget discussion will be Oct. 14, and will cover detailed information about the city’s general fund, debt service funds, internal service funds, enterprise funds and capital funds.

Council President George Hurst compared the 2023-24 budget with the 2025-26, where the previous budget had forecasted revenue of $127.5 million and forecasted expenditures of $128.5 million. “What’s driving those increases both on revenue and expenditures?” he asked.

“The forecast has the 2023 actuals and the 2024 estimates, which are much lower than the actual adopted budget because we’ve been running so low in the police department due to their vacancies and the jail not being fully opened yet,” Meyer replied. “We’re low on revenue and expenses related to the jail, and then we’ve got low expenditures related to [DBS] having a high number of vacancies.”

After reviewing the amended 2023-24 budget, Meyer reported the actual revenues are $131 million and expenditures are $133 million. “The short answer is that nothing got cheaper,” she said. “There have been new labor contracts recently approved that are reflected in the next biennial budget. Every contract we have has gotten more expensive. Liability insurance has quadrupled since the [2023-24] budget was adopted. The medical contracts were just included at the end of 2023 after a budget amendment was done, and now you have two full years of that contract. The full operations of that [medical] facility are now in the budget, and they were not in 2023-24.”

Councilmember Patrick Decker pointed out that the city will have a $4 million deficit over the next two years based on the existing data, which does not include the unfunded positions. However, when considering other city departments’ positions that are not yet included in the budget, Decker said that the actual deficit may be $5 million to $6 million. 

“If we were able to add in those things that were brought to us and things that you’re considering, we’re long ways behind,” he said. “We have to figure out how we make this work without driving the residents of Lynnwood into the poorhouse with taxes.”

During the public comment period, former Lynnwood City Councilmember Ted Hikel said that former Lynnwood Mayor Meryl Hrdlicka “would never have brought this [proposal]” to the city council. “It may not be in balance when he gives it to you, but it’s so far out of whack what you have tonight,” he said. “You’re going to do a lot of work between now and November. And for God’s sake, don’t just take money out of the reserves.”

Hikel also addressed the pay disparity between some city positions and average Lynnwood residents. “You got department directors – virtually every one of them – [are] making over $200,000 a year when the person who lives in this city is feeling lucky to make $65,000 a year,” he said. “That’s for a family. That’s two people working. You’ve got to take that into consideration.”

Lynnwood resident Jason Moore said that the police positions should be filled first before investing into community health and related services. “I believe a lot of these [community] services are already available elsewhere, you know, the county and the state,” Moore said. “Why should we face the burden when we’re already missing police officers?”

Moore added that there should be a city audit to see where the expenses are going, as former Councilmember Shirley Sutton had requested. “The staff comes and presents to you guys…where do these numbers come from?”

The next biennial budget discussion will be on Oct. 14, and the next public hearing will be on Nov. 12. A full video of the public budget hearing can be viewed here.

In other council business Sept. 23:

– Councilmember Derica Escamilla proclaimed October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The proclamation defined domestic violence as a “pattern of physical, emotional, verbal, and/or sexual abuse, which includes, but is not limited to, threats, intimidation, isolation, and/or financial control.” Victim Services Coordinator Tiffany Krusey, YWCA Vice President of Programs Mary Ann Dillon, YWCA Regional Director Kresha Green and Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County Emma Titterness attended the proclamation.

– Councilmember Josh Binda proclaimed October as Indigenous People’s Day with members of the Snohomish Tribe, including Cultural Educator and Vice Chair of the Snohomish Tribe Pamela Seamonster and Honorable Chair of the Snohomish Tribe of Indians Mike Evans.

Seamonster thanked the women who represented domestic violence. “Four out of five Indigenous women suffer from domestic or sexual violence in their lifetime,” she said. “I appreciate it very much.”

– The council voted 7-0 to approve Lynnwood resident Kelly Betts for Planning Commission Position 6. Her term expires Dec. 31, 2027.

– The council voted unanimously to create the jail manager and records manager positions for the CJC. Deputy Chief Chuck Steichen said that the Lynnwood Police Department “feels strongly” that both jobs should be a civilian position rather than filled by a police officer or commander. These new positions will not cost the city extra money and will spread the job responsibilities to more staff members rather than having one person handling most of the work.

– The council voted unanimously to approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Seattle Municipal Court and Lynnwood Municipal Court to fill the assistant court administrator position on a temporary basis. Thus, the Seattle Municipal Court employee will be working as a temporary employee at Lynnwood Municipal Court.

Court Administrator Paulette Revoir said that the MOU will allow the employee to keep some of her benefits while working for the City of Lynnwood.

The 2023-2024 municipal court’s professional services budget includes funding for a  salary of $100,000 plus benefits of a full-time assistant court administrator. This budgeted amount will cover the cost of the contract, with the city receiving monthly invoices from Seattle for the position’s salary and benefits.

The memorandum will run through June 2025, but Revoir said that it may not last that long.

– Story and photos by Nick Ng