After hearing hours of testimony from people adamantly opposed to property tax increases, a majority of Whatcom County Council members voted to adopt the county’s 2025-26 biennial budget on Nov. 19 with a total tax bill increase of approximately 2.7% for property owners in the unincorporated county and approximately 1% for properties within cities.
Many meeting attendees believed the budgeted tax increase would be larger than the actual amount proposed due to an online post by the Whatcom Business Alliance mentioning a potential 11.4% increase to the tax bill that spread across social media earlier on Tuesday.
The adopted Whatcom County budget includes taking banked capacity (tax dollars the county could have taken in the past but didn’t) plus the state-allowed annual 1% bump, which means a tax increase of 6.4 cents per $1,000 in assessed value for the general fund and 13.1 cents per $1,000 for the road fund. (Only property owners in the unincorporated county pay into the road fund.)
For a homeowner with a property assessed at $650,000, this would mean an additional $134 per year being paid to the county, around a 2.7% overall increase in Whatcom County taxes. If the property was within a city, the owner would pay $45 more per year to the county. The 11.4% increase cited by the Whatcom Business Alliance is how much the county’s portion of the tax bill (which makes up a little less than a tenth of the taxes collected in the county) will increase for unincorporated properties. Other taxing entities like the state and school districts take a larger share of a property owner’s taxes.
The council chambers were near capacity on Tuesday night during the budget public hearing and another 170 attendees watched on Zoom. Around 40 people spoke in person or online in opposition of the proposed budget, and many said they had been alerted earlier the same day about the tax increase, although the county council and executive’s office have been discussing the county’s significant budget challenges since June, announced a hiring freeze in July, and have been reviewing County Executive Satpal Sidhu’s draft budget since mid-October.
Speakers expressed concern about how unaffordable housing and goods will continue to impact community members, especially young would-be homeowners and seniors on fixed incomes, and demanded the council find ways to cut costs rather than forcing the burden on taxpayers. A number of attendees mentioned the proposed 11.4% increase to their tax bill, a percentage misinterpreted by some to mean an overall increase.
Business owner Erin Baker echoed many when she told the council to “live within your budget” the way households and businesses must. Galen Koetje of Lynden told the council “something is seriously wrong with what’s going on in this county.” Bill Bliss, a retired Bellingham landlord who lives off the rental income from a few properties, cited the ever-rising cost of housing but said he tried to avoid passing it on to tenants.
“We are cutting,” council member Todd Donovan said after testimony had ended. “We’re cutting millions and probably need to cut more.”
Council member Kaylee Galloway pointed out that nearly half the county’s budget goes to personnel costs. “I understand people want us to cut, but really what you’re saying is you want us to fire people,” she said to the meeting attendees.
Some speakers called the county health department “bloated” because it has grown by 67 full-time positions since 2019. However, most revenue that goes to the health department is backed by grants from the state and federal government.
“Reductions to the health department will not help the issues in the road fund or the general fund,” deputy executive Aly Pennucci said. She added that if the county chose not to take its banked capacity, public safety and law enforcement would likely see reductions in staff and resources.
The Whatcom County budget lists expenses of $381 million in 2025 and $318 million in 2026, down from an estimated $429 million in 2024. The executive’s office has some strategies to keep operations sustainable in the long term, such as a budget prioritization exercise to inventory all county programs and find cost savings throughout the organization.
One of the budget line items that will increase is food bank funding. Responding to pressure from the community, the council chose to increase its annual contribution to the Whatcom County Food Bank Network from $138,000 to $750,000. County food banks received $1.5 million in federal ARPA funds over the past two years while seeing a massive uptick in demand — the network now serves 9,000 households a week.
Three council members, Ben Elenbaas, Mark Stremler and Tyler Byrd, have said from the start they don’t want to increase taxes. Doubling down on that stance during a heated conversation on Tuesday night, Byrd bemoaned the legislative body’s lack of control over operations and said he believed the organization could be streamlined. Stremler said he believed the role of the county government has grown too much in the past decade, and Elenbaas encouraged his fellow council members to vote against the supplemental budget requests brought to council at every meeting through the year. Elenbaas said the county “throws money away” on ineffective programs and initiatives.
The prevailing four-person majority on the council, made up of Donavan, Galloway, Jon Scanlon, and Barry Buchanan, voted to adopt the budget.
Other local jurisdictions like Bellingham, Blaine and Skagit County are opting to raise taxes by the allowed 1% as well, although on Monday night the Ferndale City Council voted for the third year in a row not to increase taxes, and on Tuesday night the Port of Bellingham also voted not to increase its share of the tax bill.
This story was updated on Nov. 21 to include Ferndale’s vote.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
