Lynnwood City Council Adopts 2025-2026 Biennial Budget
Published on November 26, 2024
Last night, the Lynnwood City Council adopted the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget and 2025 Property Tax Levy. The adopted budget lays out the City's estimates for revenue and expenses, with a $420 million biennial budget for all funds including $158 million general fund budget. The adopted budget will ensure the City maintains its current level of service to the community while increasing capacity in critical areas.
The adopted budget also addresses the effects of inflation and the overall cost of operating a city, including increased fees for services, liability insurance, additional employees to address public safety concerns, maintaining and improving critical infrastructure, employee benefits, wage increases from collective bargaining agreements and addressing the substantial growth of the community that the City has envisioned and planned for decades.
Most notably, the budget secures funding for 27 full-time positions approved by the Council over the past two years, including multiple police officer positions funded through one-time American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and COPS grants, Parks Maintenance positions that address graffiti and vandalism on City property, and the City's Human Services Coordinator position, which were all initially funded through ARPA grant funding.
Additionally, Council approved funding and authorized the following new positions: Municipal Court Commissioner, three Municipal Court Clerks, Detention Lieutenant, three Custody Officers (to be hired in 2026), Information Technology Computer Support Specialist, and a Public Works Facilities Maintenance Worker.
Lynnwood continues to capitalize on its growth trajectory, which is laid out in the budget. For Mayor Christine Frizzell, the City is ready to provide the much-needed services for its community members, while growing to meet demand and improve the number of services it can provide.
"With our rapid and planned growth, the City of Lynnwood is at a critical juncture. This biennial budget ensures that our city continues to thrive, creating the future Lynnwood our community members want to see," said Mayor Frizzell. "I want to thank our Directors and employees who were instrumental in crafting this budget, our community members who provided their valued insight and feedback that shaped this budget, and the City Council for carefully reviewing this budget to ensure it reflects the needs of our community members and employees to operate effectively."
The City Council adopted a 2025 property tax levy of $7,200,001. Over the past several years, City Council has kept the property tax levy low to provide relief to property owners in the face of rising inflation and cost of living in our area. This increase will help to keep our city services funded. The anticipated impact for average residential property owner is approximately $12 per month or $144 per year. Snohomish County offers Property Tax exemptions to help reduce the financial challenge for qualified property owners. Click here to learn more about this program. The City of Lynnwood and Snohomish County PUD also offer utility rate discounts and bill assistance.
The adopted budget will go into effect on January 1, 2025 and will be available on our website in the near future.