It’s likely that general fund revenues for the City of Mountlake Terrace‘s 2015 adopted budget are going to be nearly $900,000 short, according to a report from Acting City Manager Scott Hugill delivered at Monday’s City Council meeting.

The adopted 2015 budget is $14,413,258 and the actual revenues are forecast to be $13,517,558, for a shortfall of $895,700.

Some of that shortfall will be made up by $400,000 in real estate excise tax from the sale of Tall Firs Apartments to the Snohomish County Housing Authority. That still only makes up half of the gap, Hugill said.

The major revenue sources that are coming up short include gambling tax revenues ($350,000 short of the $1.2 million projection), and development services fees ($267,000 short of the $850,450 projection–mostly because of the decline in building permit revenue, which is down $128,000),

Also on Monday night, the Council voted unanimously to increase its regular property tax levy by the state law-allowed 1 percent. The increase in collections for 2016 would be $33,877 more than the amount from 2015. The total levy amount is about $3.5 million, which includes collections for new construction, improvements to property, and any increase in state-assessed property as well.

The Council also unanimously passed and renewed a 50-cent increase per $1,000 in assessed value of property in the city to support emergency medical services for the city’s Fire District 1 contract. The voters passed an EMS levy more than a decade ago to support it.

The average Mountlake Terrace homeowner pays $2,461 in property tax, one of the lowest figures among cities in Snohomish County. Only 21 percent of that goes to the city.

— By Tony Dondero