Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Fri., May 13, 2022.
Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 19th week of 2022 (Friday the 13th!).
- Yesterday I attended a zoom meeting sponsored by U.S. Representative Rick Larsen, informing jurisdictions in the 2nd Congressional District about funding opportunities available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). It was pretty informative for a zoom call with a lot of politicians (did that sound snarky? anyway, it actually was worthwhile), and I left the meeting feeling pretty excited about how Island County might take advantage of some of the $3.7 Billion that Washington State will be receiving, to assist us in various projects associated with roads, bridges, airports, ports, commerce, agriculture, high speed internet, affordable connectivity, clean air, clean water, habitat restoration, and more (I stopped taking notes after a while). I was able to download 5 documents and guidebooks to assist us in identifying and applying for funds for such initiatives. If you represent a jurisdiction or associated agency and would like me to send you these documents and guidebooks, feel free to contact me and I’ll send them to you; if you have questions you should probably contact Rep. Larsen’s office directly: either Sean Garcia, Sean.Garcia@mail.house.gov, or Chris Dingle, Chris.Dingle@mail.house.gov, will be able to help you.
- This Week’s Work Session. Agenda here: https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Commissioners/worksessions/2022/05112022%20Agenda.pdf Audio: https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Commissioners/Pages/WorkSessions.aspx
- Gordon Thomas Honeywell, who represents Island County’s interests at the State Legislature, gave their 2022 End of Session Report. We requested a body scanner at the jail which was approved in the capital budget. But only 1 of the 4 things Island County requested in the Transportation budget, the Clinton to Ken’s Corner Trail appropriation, was approved, which was disappointing. We will continue to push forward with our requests again next year. Also, another funding item not on our list but impactful to us was approved: expansion of funds to the derelict vessel program. My thanks to Rep. Dave Paul, who sponsored that bill. The State also threw a lot of money at ferries and broadband; we’ll see how that goes. The focus in 2022 was on Transportation; next year will be a big Capital spending year in the legislature. The slides for GTH’s presentation can be found here: https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Commissioners/worksessions/2023/2022%20Island%20County%20End%20of%20Session%20Presentation.pdf.
- Our Budget Manager Doug Martin presented the preliminary Fiscal 2021 Financial Results to the Board. 2021 was a solid year for the County, financially. Our revenues were in line with our budget last year but we spent less than anticipated, probably due to the staffing challenges we shared with organizations throughout the country that left positions open and salaries unspent. So far in 2022 both revenues and expenditures are in line with where they should be (we’re almost fully staffed now—even people who resigned from the County are returning to work for us again!). Our biggest financial worry (like yours, probably) is: how will inflation affect our expenditures? My perspective is: our revenues should remain tracking as anticipated—but we need to really pay close attention to our expenditures this year as the costs of goods and services the County has to pay for increase due to inflationary impacts on virtually everything (gas, salaries, construction costs—you name it, we buy it). We’re sitting pretty good on 1-time monies, but our job is to plan for the bad times as well as the good; you can be sure we will be watching how our ongoing revenues stack up with our ongoing expenditures this year as we plan for our 2023 budget.
- Resolutions & Proclamations passed this week.
- Resolution No. C-31-22 (Consent Agenda): Certification of the Island County Personal Property Inventory for 2021
- Resolution No. C-32-22 (Consent Agenda): Amending Island County’s Six Year Transportation Improvement Program for the Years 2022-2027
- Ordinance No. C-32-22 (Regular Agenda): Proclaiming the month of May 2022 Drug Court Month in Island County
- COVID. We had 149 new cases this week, but fortunately no new deaths. You can get this week’s Island County COVID update here: https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Health/COVID%20Manager%20Report%20Library/BOCC%20Brief%205-13-2022.pdf.
Thanks,
Melanie“
Friday the 13th is still better than Monday the whatever.”
–Unknown
