Oct 31, 2018 | Vol. 13 | No. 44
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 How Has the City Managed Rising Costs Over Time?
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Click to read the budget message from the proposed 2019-2020 Biennial Budget
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Over the past 20 years, various citizen initiatives in Washington State have restricted sources of revenue for local governments, pressing the City to balance its budget for quite some time.
The City's current structural budget deficit is in part due to Initiative 747 (I-747), which limits property tax increases to 1% per year. This has a large impact on Mercer Island, as the single largest source of revenue to fund City operations is property tax, accounting for
41% of the budget.
Before I-747, there was Initiative 695 (passed in 1999), which reduced the City's budget by approximately $1.1 million per year in annual Motor Vehicle Excise Taxes. At the time, this equated to approximately 9% of General Fund revenues.
As a result, the City has had to adjust to the continual loss of revenue or increased costs through a mixture of reduced expenditures, efficiency gains, and revenue enhancements. Below are a few examples from the past decade.
- Police: Moving the Patrol Division from an 8.5-hour to a 12-hour shift schedule in 2014 reduced annual overtime by $20,000.
- Fire: Maintaining a mutual aid agreement with the City of Bellevue results in significant savings (i.e. not purchasing a $1.2 million ladder truck or hiring 15 more firefighters to staff it 24/7).
- Parks: Using 5,475 volunteer hours in 2017 to manage open spaces/vegetation saved an estimated $63,000.
- Public Works: Retrofitting Town Center street lamps with LED lights in 2013 reduced energy consumption by 42% with a 2.5-year payback period.
- Youth and Family Services: Increasing Thrift Shop sales from $651,000 in 2008 to $1.61 million in 2017 enabled the City to reduce General Fund tax support for YFS services.
- Human Resources: Moving Commissioned Police, Police Support, Unionized, and non-represented employees to new medical plans in 2018, saved approximately $275,000.
- Finance: Refinancing the City's 2009 LTGO bonds in 2017 secured $586,000 in net present value savings for debt service costs.
Click to read the
budget message for the next Biennial Budget (2019-2020).
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City Names Commuter Parking and Mixed-Use Proposal Finalists
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Click to view semi-finalist presentations
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Last week, over 100 people attended the City's open house showcasing conceptual proposals from five semi-finalists competing to develop a commuter parking and mixed-use
project
in Town Center.
Comments from the community were very useful and the City continues to welcome questions via its public engagement website. The City Council is currently scheduled to meet with the finalists on Monday, November 26.
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Fall Recycling Event Statistics
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Click to learn more about
recycling on Mercer Island
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The City's annual fall recycling collection event on October 27 was once again a great success, with impressive results.
Despite the mixed forecast, the City's contractor reported 573 vehicles arrived, carrying a total of 58,301 pounds of discarded material, which averages to 102 pounds each, comparable to other previous events. The event also provided a collection opportunity for Mercer Island Youth and Family Services: attendees donated 35 bags of grocery items for the City's Food Pantry, and approximately $2,139 in cash.
Some highlights this year included:
- 20,820 pounds of appliances, scrap metal, and electronics
- 8,240 pounds of reusable household goods
- 10,690 household batteries
- 128 used tires
- 12,260 pounds of confidential paper shredded onsite
- 8,360 pounds of cardboard
- 30 cubic yards of Styrofoam
- 15 propane tanks
- 20 mattresses
The City thanks residents for their participation in protecting the environment, recycling as much as possible, and supporting the Food Pantry. Learn more about curbside recycling and other options at this City webpage. |
The City's popular six-month
Rideshare Pilot program wraps up today, October 31. It delivered about
5,000 rides, and approximately
500 users tried the service at least once.
Lyft and Uber provided rides to and from the Mercer Island Park and Ride (P&R) and a Mercer Island location for a subsidized fare of $2 to $5. The City is analyzing rider data and seeking community input to help guide next steps, which the City Council will evaluate on November 20. Your input is important! If you used the Rideshare, please take our quick survey
located here.
The City Council is exploring a number of ways to
enhance mobility Island-wide, and the rideshare program was designed to provide alternatives for weekday commuters to reach the P&R without needing to drive and park a Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV).
The Pilot program was jointly funded by rideshare partners Lyft and Uber and funds from the $10.1 million
Sound Transit Settlement Agreement (no City funds were used for this pilot). The City is seeking additional partnerships to leverage settlement funds intended to provide other first-mile and last-mile solutions for the community.
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Three-Month Bikeshare Pilot Wraps Up; Seeking Community Input
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LimeBikes were distributed Island-wide for 3 months; click to take a quick program survey |
This summer, the City ran a 3-month Bikeshare Pilot program with LimeBike, in which 25 electric-assist rental bicycles were distributed across the Island, available to any user for any journey. We hope you enjoyed it: over 1,200 riders took approximately 4,100 rides totaling almost 4,000 miles!
The pilot program ended on October 17 and the City would appreciate learning about your experience; the City Council will evaluate next steps on November 20. Please complete a quick survey and help us understand how you used the program, how it changed your commuting patterns and transit use, and how you might use a similar program in the future.
As part of ongoing efforts to enhance mobility Island-wide, the pilot program was intended to provide alternatives to the use of single occupant vehicles (SOV's), test "first/last-mile" solutions, and improve access to regional transit for commuters via the Mercer Island Park & Ride. The pilot was paid for with Sound Transit settlement funds dedicated solely for mobility programs (no City funds were used).
The City continues to seek additional partnerships to leverage settlement funds intended to provide other first-mile and last-mile solutions for the community.
Take the Bikeshare survey today. |
MIVAL Holiday Show Comes to Community Center
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Click for more information
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The Mercer Island Visual Arts League (MIVAL) presents a Holiday Show at the Community Center featuring fine arts and gifts for sale. The event runs October 29 - December 14 and there is an Artists' Reception from 6:30pm to 8:00pm the evening of Thursday, November 1.
For additional information, contact Arts and Culture Coordinator Sarah Bluvas at (206) 275-7864.
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