Council gets first look at 2022 budget

The La Conner Town Council covered a lot of ground verbally at its Oct. 12 meeting but no items on their agenda required a vote. Thirty-four of the 74 page council packet laid out the 2022 town budget, which Mayor Ramon Hayes had sent council the day before.

Hayes told council, “You have a small pool of people, under 1,000, living in a boutique community.” He emphasized their needs must be managed with limited funding,

Staff wage increases were one of a few line items emphasized, with Finance Director Maria DeGoede explaining it is pegged to the CPI, the consumer price index, now at about 5.2%...