LETTER: Live within means

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 11, 2026

It was encouraging to see how well Clallam County did financially in 2025 (PDN, March 17).

The county administrator, chief financial officer and staff who are responsible deserve to be commended.

This is particularly so after the dire consequences, in terms of cuts to essential services, that were threatened last fall if we did not approve a 25 percent property tax increase.

2025 revenues grew by 13 percent from the previous year and expenses under 1 percent, allowing Clallam County to add almost $1 million to its reserves.

Even with some of the surplus being due to timing differences of grant advances being received before they are spent, it does not look like we are faced with an immediate fiscal cliff that requires socking taxpayers with another 25 percent property tax increase now.

Just like we are all limited in our expenditures by our income rather than by what we would like to spend, so government needs to learn to live within its means.

Government at all levels has a spending and not a revenue problem, and it needs to look at controlling expenditures first and increasing taxes only as a last resort, and not the other way around.

It is up to us voters to make sure that it does so.

We should remember this the next time someone cries wolf and tells us the sky will fall if we don’t vote for yet another tax increase.

Kaj Ahlburg

Port Angeles