Jessie Stensland reports from a special meeting of the Island County Commissioners on Mon., Dec. 1, 2025 for the Whidbey News-Times. Read the whole story.
Summary by Perplexity AI
Island County commissioners voted 2-1 to adopt a 0.1% sales tax for criminal justice and approve a $164.7 million 2026 budget, using the new revenue to help balance the current expense fund and support law and justice services. The tax begins in April and will raise the sales tax to 8.9% in unincorporated areas and 9.1% in Oak Harbor, higher than nearby Skagit County cities. Commissioner Janet St. Clair (D-Camano Island) and Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) supported the budget, while Commissioner Jill Johnson (R-Oak Harbor) opposed it, warning of future cost pressures, insufficient public defense funding, and a potential “2027 budget disaster.” A resident raised cost-of-living concerns.
They Said It
Commissioner Janet St. Clair said the tax sets up a dedicated funding source for law and justice departments since revenues in the current expense funds have eroded over time. In addition, she said the state Supreme Court’s decision about public defense caseloads will mean dramatic increases in that cost.
“The burden falls on the county and we could not meet the state mandate without this decision,” said St. Clair, pointing out that the state pays only a small percentage of the public defense costs.
Commissioner Jill Johnson, however, argued that the revenues from the sales tax were actually being used to supplant other expenses in the budget and only $200,000 is being used for new criminal justice spending. She said “dramatic increases” in public defense costs aren’t included in the 2026 budget but may play out over the following years. She asserted that revenues from the new sales tax should be banked for use in future years and that the county shouldn’t have funded any new jobs.
“I’m not in favor of this particular budget,” she said, “and I’m also not in favor of passing this particular tax in the way that we used it in this particular budget.”
…Johnson pointed out that the board can only increase property tax collections each year by 1% because of state law, while the actual increase in the cost of operations is much more than that.
In her comments, Johnson said this was the first time she voted against a county budget. She said her main concern was that the budget doesn’t plan for known cost increases in the future, which includes public defense as well as the adoption of a vehicle leasing program for the sheriff’s office.
She also discussed the future need to raise salaries for some employees. Referring to the recent increase in wages at Island Transit, she pointed out that professionals in the clerks office as well as paralegals in the prosecutor’s office make $6 or $7 an hour less than bus drivers.
“But the worry really significantly is that we have a 2027 budget disaster because the tax we took needed to cover those escalating costs,” she said.
In addition, she was critical of the decision to release a hiring freeze and hire new employees.
St. Clair agreed that the commissioners may face tough decisions next year but that the commissioners and staff worked together to create a budget that provides the community with a certain level of service.
Commissioner Melanie Bacon said she was very proud of the budget and proud of everyone who participated in creating it.
“It is a zero increase in staffing next year and actually a decrease in benefit costs for next year,” she said. “I think that’s good for us. We couldn’t have expected anything better than that.”
