Kira Erickson reports from the Langley City Council’s special meeting of Mon., Oct. 28, 2024 for the South Whidbey Record.
Langley is at a critical inflection point, Mayor Kennedy Horstman informed the city council this week.
More financial issues came to light recently, including a $100,000 increase next year in expenses.
Horstman has spent her past year in office tidying up the city’s budget, uncovering more information about where things went astray fiscally.
They Said It
During the council’s special meeting on Monday, Horstman said liability insurance, employee wages and benefits have all increased in cost for 2025. That amounts to $45,340 for liability insurance, $24,500 for law enforcement and $30,000 for employee benefits in the new year.
Horstman continued to hammer home the gravity of the city’s financial state.
“This isn’t just a case of the people before didn’t do a good job … this is a challenge that all municipalities are facing, and unfortunately, we’re facing it later than others because we’ve had that lack of visibility,” she said.
Langley currently can’t afford a city administrator, let alone a mayor, Horstman said…. At the rate the city is going, Horstman said, Langley could reach 2026 and not have the money to pay the electricity for streetlights.
“We need to dig in on the transportation benefit district, especially with regards to the street fund,” Horstman said. “We need to consider a levy lid lift and we need to be serious about investigating the possibility of liquidating some of our assets, particularly our real estate assets, and investing the proceeds.”
…The mayor also suggested some cost-saving measures, like taking a “flat amount” approach to employee health benefits for new hires in 2025. Right now, the city covers 95% of health benefits, regardless of the price, and as Horstman pointed out, health care costs have only increased over the last decade.
