Lisa Gardner, City Council Communications Director, 509.625.6226
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at 8:20 a.m.
During Monday night’s legislative session City Council voted 6-1 to adopt the Annual Budget of the City of Spokane for 2021.
“The City of Spokane entered 2020 in a strong financial position and is heading into 2021 on solid ground, exceeding our reserve requirements and poised to be flexible as we face economic unknowns,” says Councilwoman and Finance Committee Chair Candace Mumm. “While the budget decisions were difficult, we worked well with the new administration and Mayor Woodward to deliver a good plan for 2021 that does not dramatically increase costs or cut services to our citizens.”
The process used to get to an agreement on the budget was gathering all written requests from the Council and sharing them with the Mayor. Those budget items that the Mayor did not adopt in her November 2nd proposal Council put into a draft resolution and then used that document to negotiate further. The Council Budget Committee and Mayor have been meeting and corresponding regularly until wrapping up just a couple of days ago. The bulk of the changes are simply cost savings with only a $1.1 million use of reserves instead of initially proposed $1.67 million use of reserves. Even more importantly, the City avoided for now a $4.5 million loan refinance. This has been the most collaborative budget process between Mayor and City Council.
“After months of unprecedented collaboration between City Council and the Mayor, tonight we were able to pass a balanced budget that prioritizes the City’s core services, minimizes use of our reserves, and provides some certainty during an economically uncertain time,” says Councilwoman and Public Safety and Community Health Chair Lori Kinnear.
Council also accepted appropriations to the various funds of the City of Spokane government for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021 and providing it shall take effect immediately upon passage.
