This writer published a story here on April 21, 2008 that building permits in the county had been taking a sharp drop and predicted this would be affecting the budget before too long.
I wrote,
“What does this mean to you?

These cities and the county will be getting less revenue from permit & construction fees, so they will be forced to reduce their budget expenditures.”

Now, the “other shoe” has finally dropped, “With Thurston County facing a $4 million budget shortfall in 2009, the county commission is asking department heads to make voluntary budget cuts that could total up to 10 percent.

The cuts include slashing program costs and absorbing staff members’ annual cost-of-living increases, which previously weren’t covered by individual departments’ budgets. They were outlined in a memo sent Tuesday to all county department heads from Commissioners Diane Oberquell, Bob Macleod and Cathy Wolfe…

Sgt. Dave Odegaard, president of the Thurston County Deputy Sheriffs Association, said he was frustrated by news of the possible cuts.

“The commissioners should have known some time ago that the revenues available were declining and taken less-severe actions earlier,” he said.

“While we realize that economic times are tough right now, it is readily apparent that the board of county commissioners and their administrative staff have demonstrated their incompetence and fiscal irresponsibility,” he said.

Oberquell said the county’s revenue stream is declining because of the economic downturn and because the state requires the county to do various programs but doesn’t allocate money to finance them…

She said the commissioners are considering administrative service cuts, such as closing the courthouse one day a week.

“We’re in the first phase of figuring out what to do and how to do it,” she said,” quoting The Olympian.

In other words, expect more cuts, layoffs, delayed road projects, park closures, and reduced services.

Here is the complete memo from the Thurston County Commissioners.

THIS COMES AS NO SURPRISE TO YELM COMMUNITY BLOG READERS.

This writer asked months ago about Yelm’s budget:

Where is Yelm going to get the money for three ambitious projects with such a drop in permit/construction activity:
A new City Hall, a new Yelm Community Recreation Center,
land/building for a new Yelm Timberland Regional Library losing its lease in 2012,
added to Yelm Community Schools request for public money for High School construction in the next 3 1/2+ years?

STAY TUNED!