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City manager warns rising public‑safety costs will strain Mountlake Terrace budget
Summary
City Manager Jeff Knighton outlined increasing public‑safety expenditures—personnel costs, prosecution and public defender contracts, jail housing and 9‑1‑1 fees—saying public safety now consumes about 43% of the general fund and those costs are expected to continue rising.
Mountlake Terrace’s public‑safety budget is a growing share of the city’s general fund and is likely to rise further in coming years, City Manager Jeff Knighton told the council on Sept. 18, citing rising salaries, contract costs for prosecution and public defense, jail housing fees and other indirect expenses.
“Public safety is one of the fastest‑rising costs we have,” Knighton said. He told the council that public safety accounted for roughly $9 million in expenditures in 2024 and represented about 42.7 percent of the city’s general fund in his memo. The general fund total cited in the memo was slightly over $21 million for 2025.
Knighton flagged several drivers of the increases: salaries and benefits for sworn officers and civilian police staff; growing workload for public‑records and body‑camera redaction; indirect…
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