PORT TOWNSEND –Jefferson County officials these days are more likely to call the county’s cash-strapped budget outlook a slow train coming instead of an impending train wreck.
“If there are not structural changes made to the property tax limitation, there will be a growing train wreck,” said county Administrator John Fischbach, talking about the voter-approved cap of 1 percent on annual property tax increases for the county’s general fund.
“Costs are going up more than 1 percent,” Fischbach said.
Allen Sartin, county director of Central Services, said: “The train wreck is a work in progress. There definitely is a train wreck occurring but it definitely is going slowly.”
Fischbach said an improved economy has been the county’s saving grace, but he said that infrastructure improvements, such as the proposed Tri-Area sewer system, are needed to bolster economic growth.
The train wreck term has been used to describe what will happen to the county’s budget when expenses exceed revenues.
Expenses surpass income
Sartin said the county’s 2006 budget proposal is figured at $42.3 million for all funds, with $44.3 million in total expenditures.
“So we are almost $2 million into the reserves,” said Sartin.
The county’s reserves are figured at $12.4 million.
“But we need a big chunk of that for cash flow services,” said Sartin.