The Thurston County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 29, approved a tentative plan to cut $5.5 million from the 2027 budget, followed by $4.5 million from the 2028 budget and $4 million from the 2029 budget — a total spending reduction of $14 million over the next three years.
In an effort to reduce impacts to community services, the county’s plan pulls $1 million per year from the county’s $4 million rainy day fund.
That action would dwindle the rainy day fund balance down to $1 million by 2030, but the county is making a plan to restore and grow those stabilization funds.
The proposal also has the county transferring about $3.6 million in eligible program and service costs for 2027 to “other allowable funding sources,” according to county officials.
Officials say this combination of actions will remove immediate pressure from the county’s General Fund, leaving community services “untouched” for 2027.
“The board has been very concerned about meeting our statutory requirements, providing legislative services and funding our operations,” said Thurston County Manager Leonard Hernandez. “Once services are gone it’s difficult and expensive to set them up again. The county put stabilization funds aside for a rainy day and today is that day. While this plan doesn’t solve the ongoing deficit, it does give us time to put stabilization processes in place, thoroughly review our funding options, and work with new leaders on tighter fiscal management.”
Members of the Board of County Commissioners are aligned in their support of this strategy for the 2027 budget, but agree that greater action will need to be taken soon.
“We’re supporting this plan because it’s a tough economic season and because we’ll build a process into the budget to stabilize our community services against economic hardships,” said Vice Chair of the Board of County Commissioners Wayne Fournier. “But today’s decision doesn’t address this trend of fiscal isolation — where state and federal mandates arrive without funds to cover them fully and where the legislature caps our annual revenue growth at one percent. We still have work to do.”
Thurston County is considering going out for a levy lid lift in 2027 to increase county revenue, a move officials believe is necessary due to increasing unfunded state and federal mandates, a property-tax revenue cap at 1% increase per year and general economic volatility.
If passed, the county expects it would be able to use those extra funds in mid- to late-2028 to help stabilize the budget.
The details of that pending proposal have not been finalized.
“We can’t simply hope for adequate funding, we have to plan for and build a bridge to stabilize funding for county services,” said Chair of the Board of County Commissioners Tye Menser. “Although we’re taking immediate actions that will protect community services for 2027, we’re also including a mechanism to restore the stabilization funds we’re using and grow them into the future.”
The Board of County Commissioners will continue budget deliberations this week and throughout the next several months to refine the proposal and detail specific actions.
The preliminary budget will be published in mid-November, with final adoption scheduled to take place Dec. 15.
To learn more about the county’s ongoing budget deliberations, to see recorded budget meetings and documents, visit the county’s website at www.thurstoncountywa.gov/balancing-budget.
