League of Women Voters of Kitsap

Tuesday’s public meeting and lunch with the county commissioners drew a lively crowd of about 75 to Country Meadows Red Barn in Silverdale.
Commissioners Charlotte Garrido and Josh Brown fielded questions on everything from park closures to raising county revenues. Commissioner Steve Bauer could not attend because he was in Washington, D.C., representing the county with the Navy League.
Lisa Ballou and other members of the Kitsap Tribabes were there to protest the planned summer closures of Horseshoe Lake in South Kitsap and Wildcat Lake in Central Kitsap, where the group usually trains for triathlons.
Brown, who represents CK, said the county faced a severe budget crisis and that closing the two parks was a revenue saver since they are expensive to maintain and do not make money.
Garrido held up an oversize dollar bill to show what portion of the property tax dollar goes to the county. It showed just 9.5 cents going to the county general fund. Another 13.3 cents goes to county roads, while the bulk of the rest goes to the state general fund, local schools and fire districts.
The commissioners said that 70 percent of their $82.7 million operating budget for 2010 goes for law and justice services. Parks, while a treasured resource, are “discretionary,” meaning they are not a legally mandated county service.
“Some of the best things we do as a county are discretionary,” Brown said.
The county has already laid off staff, cut staff hours and closed the county administration building on Fridays to save money. Last year the deficit grew from $1.8 million to $5.9 million causing a major midyear budget reduction that remains in effect this year.
It’s not easy for the county to raise revenues, Brown said. He has recently lobbied in Olympia with other county officials for the counties to have more flexibility in raising and spending a small portion of sales tax. Currently counties may raise sales tax by 1 tenth of 1 percent for mental health services. While our local legislators are sensitive to Kitsap County needs, the Legislature as a whole is so caught up in the state budget crisis that it hasn’t paid much attention to county concerns, Brown said.
Despite all the gloom, the commissioners did see some rays of hope for the future. Brown said the new YMCA to be built in CK should be a successful public-private partnership. One day he hopes to see satellite Ys in North and South Kitsap.
Garrido noted that the county will be spending $2.3 million in stimulus funds for energy upgrades including replacing single-pane windows in the old county courthouse building.
The event was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Kitsap. Next month, on March 23, the League will hold a lunch and public meeting on health care from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Silverdale Beach Hotel. For information call 360-598-3508.

Commissioner Josh Brown listens to concerns during the League meeting Tuesday.

Commissioner Charlotte Garrido displays an oversize bill to show that only 9.5 cents of the property tax dollar goes to the county general fund.

Share on Facebook

Tags: Charlotte Garrido, Horseshoe Lake, Josh Brown, Wildcat Lake

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 11:23 am by lwvkitsap and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.