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Anacortes council candidates emphasize revenue sustainability, housing and customer service at forum
Summary
At an Anacortes Chamber forum, city council candidates identified revenue shortfalls, housing availability and government responsiveness as the top issues facing the city, offering a mix of policy ideas including permitting changes, ADU incentives and greater use of nonprofit housing partners.
Anacortes City Council candidates speaking at the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce government affairs candidate forum highlighted revenue sustainability and housing as the city’s top near-term challenges, and urged improved responsiveness from city government.
At the forum, Luke Currier, a candidate for City Council position 4 and a former planning commissioner, said the city faces “revenue sustainability” problems and housing shortages. “Building permits are down a third since 2022,” Currier said, and he cited a council retreat projection that the city could face about a $2,000,000 resource cost increase in 2026 and employee benefit increases of roughly 8 percent. “If we want to keep funding public safety, infrastructure, parks, and essential services, we need to grow a revenue base. Not by increasing the tax burden on homeowners, but by strategically and steadily growing our local economy,” he said.
Why it matters: candidates tied revenue and housing directly to workforce and public-safety…
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