Councilman Nehring's January Newsletter

Dear North County Neighbors,

Happy New Year to all of the residents of North Snohomish County! I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season celebrating with family and friends.

Despite the holiday break, December continued to be a busy time at the Snohomish County Council. One of the highlights was the 2018 County budget going into effect. As you may recall from my December newsletter, the Snohomish County Council unanimously passed the 2018 budget without an increase in property taxes. I mentioned that the budget went to Executive Somers for his consideration. The County Executive has three options within 10 days of receiving the budget from the Council. He can sign it into law, veto it, or let it go into effect without signing it. He chose the latter. This means he was not supportive of the budget but that it received enough support from Council that he could not sustain a veto. You can read my commentary on the budget in the Stanwood-Camano News here.

Another highlight in December was my visit to “Insite”, the heroin injection site in Vancouver, B.C. Last Tuesday (Dec. 26), Everett City Councilman Scott Bader and I drove to Vancouver to tour the “safe” injection site there. As I have written before, Seattle and King County are aggressively pursuing these tax-payer funded injection sites and I have led the charge in Snohomish County to preemptively ban them. I decided to actually visit the site to the north to see first-hand what these sites look like and I was shocked. The neighborhoods within a mile radius of the site were full of trash, tents, needles, and other dangerous debris. There were hundreds of drug-addicted individuals shooting up heroin in the streets and alleys. This is especially disturbing, not only for those living in despair, but for the residents and families affected by the state of their community. Supporters of “safe” injection sites like the one in Vancouver repeatedly claim that these sites reduce the negative impacts to surrounding areas and make the heroin epidemic safer for users and the community. Based on what I saw on my visit, that could not be further from the truth. I will continue to oppose these sites and I am proud of the steps that Snohomish County and many cities have taken against these dangerous and illegal operations.

As we move into 2018, I will continue to work on issues including the heroin and opioid epidemic, fiscal responsibility, and property rights. I am honored and excited to continue to represent you in the New Year.

I will be sending out newsletters on a monthly basis to keep you informed about what I am working on and how I am representing the residents of North Snohomish County on the County Council. Please feel free to reach out to me at 425-388-3494 or Nate.Nehring@snoco.org.

Sincerely,

Nate Nehring
Councilman, District 1

Snohomish County Council 3000 Rockefeller Ave., M/S 609 Everett, Washington 98201   8th floor, Robert J. Drewel Building  Phone: 425-388-3494 E-Mail: Nate.Nehring@snoco.org   Russell Wiita, Legislative Aide