EFR considers charges for services, ambulance rides
September 1, 2010
NEW — 1:00 p.m. Sept. 1, 2010
Call it the fire department equivalent of tolling.
Faced with the steadily rising costs of health care and personnel, and repeated calls from partners to limit their annual increases in contributions, Eastside Fire & Rescue is considering charging citizens for various fire services, from ambulance rides to car crash responses.
Sammamish officials have pushed the department to see what it would take to draft a budget with a zero-percent increase next year. EFR Deputy Chief of Operations Jeff Griffin said the administration is dedicated to trying for that, but said it may be a choice between staff or program cuts, or new revenue from fees.
King County leaders take step to rein in labor costs
July 29, 2010
NEW — 1:40 p.m. July 29, 2010
ALSO SEE: King County executive freezes salaries
King County leaders have taken a step to reduce labor costs — or 60 percent of the cash-strapped county’s budget.
The proposed reforms could require county employees to pay more for health and dental benefits, limit inflation-related raises, cut overtime and call for employee layoffs to be based on merit instead of seniority.
Clean audit for Snoqualmie Valley School District after fixing mistakes
May 11, 2010
NEW — 4:00 p.m. May 11, 2010
After fixing mistakes found in its 2007-08 audit, the Snoqualmie Valley School District received a clean audit for the 2008-09 school year.
In the previous year, the state auditor’s office found four errors in the district’s financial practices.
State should allow flexibility for parks
May 5, 2010
NEW — 1:33 p.m. May 5, 2010
The Legislature missed a chance to help cities and counties across the state weather the lingering effects of the recession.
District escapes large cut, but may lose up to $1 million
May 4, 2010
NEW — 8:23 a.m. May 4, 2010
In the darkest days of the 2010 Legislative session, the Snoqualmie Valley School District was poised to lose about $1.8 million of state funding from its budget.
The sky has lightened for the district, for now. Though district administrators are still tabulating the impact, they predict the district will lose less state funding: about $1 million. It will mean more staffing cuts but fewer than expected.
Mount Si trail saved from budget cuts
April 13, 2010
NEW — 4:30 p.m. April 13, 2010
Trails at Mount Si, Little Si, Middlefork and Rattlesnake have received a second lease on life from the state Legislature. The Legislature passed a supplemental budget for the 2010-11 year April 12 — a budget that had to deal with $2.8 billion in cuts.
Creativity, skill needed to bridge budget gap
January 13, 2010
Washington legislators face a nearly overwhelming task of balancing the state’s budget. Currently it’s $2.6 billion short. The budget gap is proportionally close in size to the shortfall that forced California to issue IOUs. Read more
Tanner Annex helps shore up North Bend’s budget
January 6, 2010
Economic recession pushes down tax revenue but Tanner Annex brings new sources
NEW — 12:53 p.m. Jan. 6, 2010
North Bend’s Tanner Annex is already helping the city, which it joined this year. The additional tax revenue from the addition is offsetting a decrease in tax revenue, which had threatened to create a budget shortfall.
The economic recession depressed the city’s tax revenue, but the trend has flattened out, according to city officials. Read more
School district proposes $4.1 million in cuts
April 8, 2009
The Snoqualmie Valley School District is doing its best to keep class sizes low, despite a proposed cut in funding for teachers from the state Legislature.
At an April 2 Snoqualmie Valley School Board work session, Superintendent Joel Aune announced the district is preparing to cut $4.1 million from the 2009-10 school year budget. Out of a budget amounting to about $52.1 million, that amounts to an almost 8 percent slash in funds.
The cuts include eliminating about 18 full-time teachers, a middle-school assistant principal and various programs like the after-school activity bus and middle school interscholastic sports.
Members of the Snoqualmie Valley School Board, along with Superintendent Joel Aune, work on plans for drastic budget cuts.
Suggested state budget could hurt locally
December 31, 2008
Times are financially tight for the state of Washington, especially for K-12 education and the Department of Early Learning.
With a $5.8 billion deficit, a newly proposed budget by Governor Chris Gregoire has a string of cuts amounting to about $3 billion in the 2009-11 state budget. If passed by the Legislature, these cuts would impact both the Snoqualmie Valley School District and Encompass of North Bend. Read more
