Program budget invests in public safety, streets

Citizens can view proposed budget at http://www.myspokanebudget.org

Brian Coddington, Communications Director, 509.625.6740

Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 3:50 p.m.

Spokane Mayor David Condon released a 2014 Program Budget Proposal today that focuses squarely on citizen priorities to direct critical investments in public safety and streets, and invited additional public input about the plan.

Next year’s budget proposal adds 25 police officers, redirects resources to maintain the current level of fire service and sets aside money for long-term investments in streets. Citizens consistently stressed public safety and street improvements during a recent Telephone Town Hall meeting and numerous other public forums, presentations and meetings.

“We are living within our means to provide affordable services for residents,” Condon said. “We stressed accountability and found efficiencies across the organization. We aligned priorities, principles and revenues to match expenses.”

Citizens can view the budget and provide input at MySpokaneBudget.org, an interactive website launched today. Users can reallocate money by department, submit their own budget proposal and comment on the existing proposal. A full version of the Program Budget Proposal is available for download from the site. It includes a list of upcoming engagement opportunities.

The Program Budget Proposal was built upon a philosophy that services are affordable, the City is accountable to delivering the best results for dollars invested and that revenues align to expenses. Highlights include:

Affordable for residents:

  • Invest more in top priorities with existing resources
  • Maintain utility rate growth at CPI to get to a cleaner river faster
  • Deliver integrated projects with multiple impacts – every dollar working harder
  • Manage labor contracts within existing funds
  • Rebalance reserves to protect for the future

Accountability and efficiencies:

  • Reduce police administrative overhead
  • Integrate finance/IT resources
  • Restructure legal and planning
  • Reduce other overhead
  • Decrease criminal justice overhead

Aligned revenues to expenses:

  • Restructure debt to pay for police officers
  • Improve transportation network with storm water investments
  • Develop capital fund program using 1% property tax authority
  • Allocate parking revenue to police
  • Assign engineering resources to utility projects
  • Amortize Fire pension to sustain fire services
  • Assign cell tower revenue to asset management

Citizen input guided development of the Program Budget Proposal. Nearly 6,000 people participated in the Telephone Town Hall meeting on June 12. Others have provided input during neighborhood forums, business meetings and via digital media.

“We have received a lot of input that has been invaluable in developing the Program Budget Proposal,” Condon said. “We invite and encourage more as we work with the City Council to fine-tune the budget for next year.”

Visit myspokanebudget.org