Mayor proposes levy lid lift to restore city services; council seeks more data and resident engagement

At a special July 13 meeting, the mayor laid out the city’s 2027 budget choices and recommended a middle path to "restore and modernize" core services, then asked the council whether to place a property-tax levy lid lift before voters in November.

The mayor told the council that, after adjusting for inflation to 2027 dollars, operating revenue is about $3.4 million lower than in 2019 and that the loss of North Bend police cost sharing in 2026 is a major driver of the shortfall. "This is the structural problem," he said, describing state limits that cap levy growth roughly at 1% without voter approval while personnel and contract costs are rising far faster.

Why it matters: the city’s largest operating tax — property tax — has not kept pace with inflation in recent years, the mayor said, and personnel alone accounts for nearly 60% of operating costs. He estimated about $1.2 million in additional personnel costs from 2026 to 2027 and described three funding options: operate within existing revenues (requiring further service reductions), maintain current service levels (≈ $1.5 million more), or restore and modernize (≈ $3.4 million more). Funding every department request would require roughly $4.5 million, which the mayor said equates to about $64 per month on the median home value.

Council response and next steps: several council members said the presentation was a useful framing but that they were not prepared to endorse placing a levy before voters without more analysis and resident input. Council member Holloway said he needed a bottoms-up look at public safety staffing and the implications of losing the North Bend cost-sharing arrangement; Council member Tessman asked for concrete examples of what a smaller maintained budget would mean for day-to-day services; Council member Murphy and others asked for more time to review the underlying data and to survey resident preferences. Council member Cotton urged more public outreach before asking voters for new revenue.

Process timeline: the mayor proposed bringing a council resolution on July 27 and noted King County’s filing deadline for the November election is August 4. The council asked administration to provide department-level detail and suggested a schedule of follow-up meetings, a working session and a town-hall style public forum before the August filing deadline.

What remains unresolved: council did not vote to place a levy measure on the ballot and directed staff to provide the additional analysis (departmental cost/impact detail, outreach results, and legal clarifications) that members requested. The mayor said staff would make slides and underlying data available and that the administration would work with council to set meeting dates and public engagement events.