WA: Skagit Transit board approves operating budget, delays approval of capital budget
By Caleb Sprous
Source Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon, Wash. (TNS)
The Skagit Transit Board of Directors approved Wednesday the public transit system’s operating budget, while deferring action on its capital budget.
According to meeting documents, Skagit Transit’s 2025 operating budget is balanced with $25.7 million in revenue and $25.7 million in expenditures.
The proposed capital budget includes $9.6 million in capital grant revenue and $38.7 million in capital expenditures — a deficit of $29.1 million.
Board member James Stavig voiced concerns over the budget.
“The main issue that I had regarding the budget was the capital budget,” he told the Skagit Valley Herald on Thursday.
Stavig, who is also a member of the Burlington City Council, expressed concern about approving a budget that included a large deficit because he said approving a budget amounts to a “stamp of approval.”
“This is a public entity and those budgets aren’t a secret,” Stavig said. “Anybody could look at it, and I could see someone from the public looking at the budget here and going ‘Why on Earth would they approve a budget like that when there’s this huge deficit there and they don’t have enough revenue to cover expenses?’”
During Wednesday’s board meeting, Skagit Transit CEO Crystle Stidham-Tinges said the capital budget expenditures are so high because of continued work on Skagit Transit’s new maintenance and operations facility.
She said Skagit Transit does not yet have the grants to offset the expenses.
“I want to remind the board that unless we get full funding for a phase, we can’t proceed,” Stidham said at the meeting. “So, these numbers will definitely change throughout the year.”
Stavig told the Skagit Valley Herald that he felt approving the capital budget would have been tantamount to saying “go ahead and spend $38 million.”
The board will further discuss the capital budget at its January meeting.
According to public documents, Skagit Transit’s 2024 capital budget had a $2.7 million deficit, and the 2025 capital budget shows it will end 2024 with a $3.3 million capital budget deficit.
Skagit Transit had a capital budget deficit in 2023 of $1.9 million.
Skagit Transit’s 2025 budget shows a budgeted increase in reserve funds to about $23.1 million.
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