Chelan County Commissioners Tackling Link Transit Budget, Unfunded Mandates and More

Link Transit is still working on incorporating the one-tenth of one percent sales tax increase voters approved in 2019 into their 2020 budget.

Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay, who is on the Link board, voted against the proposed budget saying they wanted to slow the process down.

"Make sure that we have an opportunity to take a lot at exactly what the implementation of expanded service would be for this upcoming year. There's talk of a Saturday and Sunday expansion and we want to make sure that there are efficiencies that are looked at within the system as a whole."

A consultant is being hired to look at the whole system. Overbay says they don't want to expand service upon an inefficient system.

Chelan County Commissioners Doug England and Bob Bugert will be traveling to Olympia Wednesday to meet legislators armed with the top priorities for the 2020 session.

England says one of their biggest concerns is unfunded mandates.

"[Things] the state wants us to take care of, enforce their laws without the ability to fund those things. Everything from indigent defense to the marijuana issue and a number of other things."

Hear the full conversation below: