EVERETT—It was revealed at Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting, that Snohomish County is projecting at least a $23.6 million deficit for the 2025-2026 biennium, in addition to a $14 million year-over-year structural deficit extending through December of 2030.

“So, it’s a doubling of our structural deficit,” Mead said during Tuesday’s meeting. “So, our hair is on fire, but why is there not a column [in the budget presentation] here that tells me our hair is on fire?”

Driven primarily by lower-than-expected sales tax revenues and rising expenditures in key criminal justice departments, the budget situation is soon becoming a crisis that, according to current projection, could deplete the County’s Total General Fund balance from $73.2 million at the end of 2025 to a negative territory by De

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