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Community Health & Justice Data
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1
Police budget sizes vary with city size and are hard to compare directly.
Bellingham's $50.6M police budget is roughly ten times Lynden's $4.7M, but Bellingham also has about six times Lynden's population. Per-capita figures offer one comparable lens; city-by-city context (calls for service, geography, staffing model) offers others. This page presents both raw totals and per-capita figures so readers can form their own comparisons.
2
The three-bucket framework is one way to categorize public safety spending.
Prevention (upstream) investments aim to reduce the conditions that generate demand on the justice system. Behavioral health and diversion investments connect people to treatment rather than incarceration. Response (downstream) investments manage current demand. Cities and the County allocate across all three in different proportions; the framework is analytical, not evaluative.
3
ILA contributions represent each city's shared investment in the regional justice system.
ILA contributions are each city's proportional share of costs for the joint facility and programs. They are exact 2024 actuals from Fund 3502. Together with the County's sales tax share, they constitute the revenue pool for the Justice Project. Comparing ILA contributions across cities reflects the statutory distribution formula (60% County, 40% cities, apportioned among cities by population).
Police budget figures: Bellingham from 2026 Preliminary Budget (Police Department, All Funds, Proposed FY2026); Lynden from 2025 Budget Document (confirmed); Blaine from 2025 Final Budget Ordinance (confirmed); Ferndale from 2026 Preliminary Budget (partial, police total estimated from visible line items). ILA contributions from Whatcom County Fund 3502 Report, 2024 actuals. Booking counts from Whatcom County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) public booking data, deduplicated by booking number and excluding Electronic Home Detention (EHD) bookings.
City Budgets · Public Safety Spending · ILA Framework

Budget data for
Whatcom County's seven ILA cities

City budgets are public documents. This dashboard assembles confirmed police budget figures for each city that is party to the Whatcom County Interlocal Agreement, alongside each city's 2024 contribution to Fund 3502 and its share of jail bookings. The goal is to put the numbers in one place so readers can review them directly.

7
ILA cities (plus Whatcom County)
$1.87M
Total 2024 city contributions to Fund 3502
$4.51M
County's 2024 sales tax share
−2.4%
Actual 2024 public safety sales tax base growth
The Framework
Three Categories of Public Safety Spending
🌱
Prevention (Upstream)
Investments that aim to reduce the conditions that generate future demand on the justice system. Typically funded outside of law enforcement budgets.
Parks & recreation, libraries, early learning, affordable housing programs, youth services, code enforcement, mental health promotion
🏥
Behavioral Health & Diversion
Investments that connect people to treatment or community-based services as an alternative to incarceration. Funded through a mix of city, County, state, and ILA resources.
Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), crisis services, mental health court, drug court, Ground-Level Response and Coordinated Engagement (GRACE), street medicine, peer support, ILA upstream investment share
🚔
Response (Downstream)
Investments that respond to incidents and manage current demand on the justice system. The largest single category in most city budgets.
Police patrol, investigations, jail operations, prosecution, booking, detention, court operations
City by City
Confirmed Budget Data, ILA Parties
Data Notes Police budget figures represent the total law enforcement budget for each city as reported in the most recently available budget documents (2025 or 2026 as noted). ILA contributions are exact 2024 actuals from Fund 3502. Booking counts are derived from WCSO public booking data for calendar year 2025, deduplicated by booking number and excluding electronic home detention (EHD) bookings. Cross-city comparisons should account for population differences; per-capita figures are included for each city where possible. Ferndale's police total is estimated from visible line items because the available document does not display a final total.
Bellingham
~90,000 residents · Largest ILA city · 2,070 bookings in 2025 (43.6% of county total)
Police budget (FY2026, all funds)$50,619,723
Police per capita~$562/resident
Fire budget (FY2026)~$40,900,000
ILA Contribution 2024
$1,316,667
Largest city contribution · ~2.6% of police budget
Source: City of Bellingham 2026 Preliminary Budget
Ferndale
~17,000 residents · 221 bookings in 2025 (4.7% of county total)
Police budget (2026, estimated)~$6,000,000
Police per capita (est.)~$353/resident
Budget statusPartial, doc cuts off
ILA Contribution 2024
$158,189
~2.6% of est. police budget
Source: City of Ferndale 2026 Preliminary Budget (partial). Police total estimated from visible salary/benefit line items.
Lynden
~15,000 residents · 152 bookings in 2025 (3.2% of county total)
Police budget (2025, confirmed)$4,657,810
Police per capita~$310/resident
Total city general fund (2025)$22,774,814
ILA Contribution 2024
$226,670
~4.9% of police budget
Source: City of Lynden 2025 Budget Document (confirmed). Police: salaries $3,945,946 + supplies $711,864.
Blaine
~6,500 residents · 126 bookings in 2025 (2.7% of county total)
Police budget (2025, confirmed)$3,671,497
Police per capita~$565/resident
Police Admin + Operations$1.19M + $2.48M
ILA Contribution 2024
$86,579
2.4% of police budget
Source: City of Blaine 2025 Final Budget Ordinance (confirmed). Police Admin $1,194,983 + Operations $2,476,514.
Everson, Nooksack & Sumas
Small cities · combined ~3,500 residents · 91 bookings in 2025 (1.9% of county total)
Police budgetNot extracted
Everson total budget (2026)$15,312,679
Combined ILA Contributions 2024
$78,069
Everson $35,405 · Sumas $24,835 · Nooksack $17,629
Small cities (<20K population) are not required to follow Implementation Plan spending guidance under Section 4 of Ordinance 2023-039.
ILA Contributions
Fund 3502 Revenue Breakdown, 2024 Actuals
About Fund 3502 Fund 3502 is the Whatcom County fund that receives the 0.2% public safety sales tax revenue under Proposition 2023-04. The County receives 60% of the sales tax; the seven cities share the remaining 40% on a per-capita basis. A portion of each city's share is then contributed back to Fund 3502 under the ILA to help finance the Justice Facility and Behavioral Care Center. The chart below shows the 2024 actual flows into Fund 3502.
Fund 3502 · 2024 Actuals
Fund 3502 Revenue Sources, 2024 Actual
County sales tax (60% statutory share) plus seven city contributions

Source: Whatcom County Public Safety and Justice Facility Fund 3502 Report. 2024 actual revenue.

Per-Capita Comparison
Police Budget vs. ILA Contribution, Per Resident
Each city's local police spending and ILA contribution, normalized per resident

Source: City budget documents 2025-2026; ILA Fund 3502 2024 actuals. Population estimates from OFM. Ferndale police total estimated from partial data.

Revenue Performance
Fund 3502 vs. Financing Model Assumptions
Context The Justice Project financing plan relies on projected growth in the public safety sales tax base. According to PFM Financial Advisors' January 2025 update to Whatcom County, the preliminary funding plan assumed 5.0% growth in the public safety sales tax base for 2024; actual 2024 growth was −2.4%. PFM's updated funding plan assumes 4% annual growth in subsequent years. Revenue performance is one of several inputs into the ongoing ILA financing scenarios prepared by PFM.
Fund 3502 · 2024 Actuals
Total Revenue 2024
First partial year of 0.2% sales tax collection (distributions began June 2024)
$6,378,841
County sales tax ($4,512,867) plus city contributions ($1,866,204)

Source: Whatcom County Fund 3502 Report. 2024 totals (2024 not yet closed at time of report).

PFM Financing Model
Growth Assumption
From PFM's updated funding plan (January 2025)
5.0% / 4%
5.0% growth assumed for 2024; 4% annually thereafter

Source: PFM Financial Advisors, Justice Facility Project Update (February 13, 2025 presentation).

2024 Actual Performance
Actual 2024 Growth
Public safety sales tax base, 2024 vs. 2023
−2.4%
Per PFM: "Actual growth in the public safety sales tax base was negative 2.4%"

Source: PFM Financial Advisors, Justice Facility Project Update (February 13, 2025 presentation).

⚠ Beta Project, This data initiative is under active development. Figures, methodology, and content are subject to revision. If you notice an error, have additional data, or want to flag an omission, please email info@chuckanuthealthfoundation.org. We are grateful for corrections.