As reported here on February 10th, Mayor Ron Harding told the Yelm Chamber Forum in his State of the City Address,
“If the economy continues a decline, we’ll have to assess service cuts by year’s end.
Revenues were up only 3% in 2008; we expected higher.
We did fall quite a bit short with revenue last year
We are expecting a continuing economic decline.”

He further went on to say that he did not know yet what kind of cuts in city services would be coming; that would be determined later this year if the economy continued to slide.

THURSTON COUNTY SWINGS BUDGET AX HARD
Fewer Deputies On Street, Crimes To Go Unprosecuted, All Parks To Close

“Saying they simply dont have enough money to pay the bills, Thurston county Commissioners on Friday [Feb. 27] announced a new round of drastic budget cuts.

The cuts totaling $5.7 million are hitting law enforcement the hardest.

The Sheriffs Office will lose nearly $2 million in funding. Sheriff Dan Kimball tells KIRO-TV that could mean as many as 30 job cuts including up to 15 road deputies.

A total of $3.8 million in cuts to Law, Safety and Justice means the Thurston County Prosecutors Office will also lose five deputy prosecutors. Prosecutor Ed Holm tells KIRO-TV it means some crimes will go unprosecuted. He says he simply wont have enough people to prosecute certain crimes like misdemeanor theft, low level drug crimes, and failure to register as a sex offender…

There are currently 13 parks in Thurston County. County leaders tell KIRO-TV they have no plans to sell the parks and hope to eventually re-open them, but for now they simply cannot afford to keep them open.

The budget reductions also include cutting 16 jobs at Thurston county Development Services, wiping out about $60,000 in funding for the county fair and eliminating most of the countys Public Health personal health services programs,” quoting Seattle’s KIRO-TV 7.

Stark forecast for homebuilders
Speaker tells Master Builders 70 percent of small builders may not survive 2009
From The Olympian