Town council votes on 2024 budget Dec. 12

The 2024 annual budget the La Conner Town Council will pass at its Dec. 12 meeting will be the largest in its history. It projects revenues of $7.4 million, expenditures of $8.6 million and the fund balance growing to $5.9 million.

The graph, above, shows continued growth in revenues council's continuing to commit more resources each year. The bars represent approved funding, except for the fund balance, which is an end of the year total.

A graph tracking actual year ending revenues will show that income has annually exceeded projections all these years. Likewise actual expenditures have been below budgeted amounts. The council has approved deficit budgets but has finished each year with net income.

The fund balance figures for 2021-2023 show the total at the start of each year. On Dec. 31, 2020, the fund balance was $3.2 million. The fund has grown to $5.7 million at the end of 2022, an increase of almost 2.5 million, about 74%. If the trend of the last four years continues, La Conner will gain more income than projected, keep expenditures below the budget, and grow the fund balance above $6 million.

Council can still revise the budget. The preliminary budget does not have any funding for the La Conner Swinomish Library.

A PDF file of this budget is on the La Conner website within the Town Government tab under Town Council & Council Meeting Packet.