Mayor Mike McGinn presented his budget and it has impacts for West Seattle in the form of the closure of the West Seattle Payment and information center at 4205 SW Alaska Street (selected because the lease expires at the end of 2010), and reduced hours for the Alki Community Center at 5817 s.w. Stevens St from 53 hours per week during the school year and 46 hours per week in the summer to 15-20 hours per week year round.

The Lincoln Park wading pool will remain open seven days a week during the summer months while the Delridge wading pool next to the Delridge Community Center at 4458 Delridge Way s.w. will be open three days a week.

Here's the official press release:

Mayor Mike McGinn today presented his 2011-2012 Proposed Budget for the City of Seattle at the Rainier Beach Community Center and in City Council Chambers. In his first budget address, McGinn outlined an $888 million General Fund budget for 2011, which is $13.7 million smaller than the 2010 adopted budget. The total proposed budget for 2011 is $3.9 billion.

The City's once healthy General Fund revenue streams have suffered from the turmoil of the longest and deepest recession to face this nation since the Great Depression. While still growing, the City's revenues are no longer increasing enough to maintain existing services. Most of the one-time strategies used over the past two years to balance the budget, avoid significant reductions, and sustain services are now exhausted. The result is a forecast $67 million shortfall in the City's General Fund for 2011.

“Faced with the daunting challenge of closing a $67 million shortfall in the General Fund and addressing the financial realities in other City funds, I had to make difficult but necessary decisions. My goal was to develop a sustainable budget that doesn't rely on general tax increases and preserves services as much as possible. I met that goal but it is not without consequences,” said McGinn.

The proposed budget reflects City employees' continued willingness to make sacrifices. For many employee groups, 2011 will be another year with no salary adjustments, saving the City more than $2 million. A tentative agreement with the City's labor unions, affecting 6,000 City employees, would lower cost-of-living increase through 2013, saving the City nearly $6 million.

The proposed budget is balanced on internal savings and efficiencies, including the savings in labor costs and administrative and management overhead costs, fee increases targeted toward the users of various services, and reductions to direct services. This will result in the layoff of City employees. The Proposed Budget eliminates 294 positions, or 2.67 percent of the City's total work force. Of these positions, 214 are currently filled and will result in layoffs, effective January 4, 2011. Of these positions, 64 – or nearly 22 percent – are senior-level.

McGinn's proposed budget minimizes direct service impacts on public safety and the human services safety net. Public Safety is the only operational program in the General Fund that is seeing expenditure increases in 2011. Police will have an all-time high of 585 sworn officers assigned to patrol in 2011, up from the current record-high of 555 officers. And Fire will maintain its current firefighting strength of 990 active personnel.

Programs serving children and youth and providing employment opportunities were preserved as much as possible. The budget preserves existing programs supporting McGinn's major initiatives, including the Youth & Families Initiative; the Jobs Initiative; Walk, Bike, Ride; and Sustainable Communities.

To generate more revenue, we propose increases in parking meter hours and rates, and in a variety of other fees to better align them with actual costs. For example, the Library will increase its daily fine rate, Police will increase the fee charged to alarm companies that ask police to respond to false alarms, Seattle Municipal Court will increase a number of its administrative fees, and Parks will increase a number of its fees.

Separate from the General Fund, the proposed budget includes increases in rates for Seattle City Light and the Solid Waste and Drainage and Wastewater utilities.

We made changes in direct services with an eye to geographic and social equity, and the availability of alternative services. Here are some of the changes included in the proposed budget:

We are rebuilding the Rainier Beach Community Center and Pool, a $20 million project that will be complete in 2013.

Community Centers:
Six community centers will have limited use. Five other community centers – Alki, Ballard, Laurelhurst, Queen Anne, and Green Lake – will have reduced operating hours. The drop-in hours for Alki, Ballard, and Laurelhurst will be reduced from 53 hours per week during the school year and 46 hours per week in the summer to 15-20 hours per week year round.

Wading Pools:
Wading pools at Green Lake, Lincoln, Magnuson, Van Asselt, and Volunteer Park will be open seven days a week in the summer months. Wading pools at South Park, East Queen Anne, Cal Anderson, Dahl, Delridge, Wallingford, Hiawatha, Bitter Lake, EC Hughes, and Sound View Parks will be open three days a week. Wading pools at Ravenna, Beacon Hill, Powell Barnett, Peppi's Playground, View Ridge, Gilman, and Sandel Parks will remain closed in 2011.

Seattle Public Library:
The library is making 8.5 percent in cuts yet keeping all current hours of operation at 2010 levels by restructuring management of branches. A systemwide closure first instituted in 2009 will continue in 2011.

Neighborhood Service Centers (NSC):
Six of Seattle's 13 Neighborhood Service Centers (those that serve as payment and information centers) will remain open. Seven centers will close, including the West Seattle payment and information center. The West Seattle site was selected for closure because the building lease expires at the end of 2010; it will merge with the nearby Delridge NSC. The remaining six payment sites are Delridge, University District, Central District, Lake City, Southeast, and Ballard.

“Looking ahead, I'm confident this budget puts us on a sustainable path. We are committed to using the resources we have to build for the future," McGinn said.

The 2011-2012 Proposed Budget will be available later this afternoon online.

The City Council will spend October and most of November reviewing the mayor's proposed biennial budget and capital improvement program (CIP). The budget and CIP must be adopted no later than Dec. 2. State law requires Seattle to adopt a balanced budget.