On Friday Nov. 12, the council, meeting as the Budget Committee, adopted some 147 amendments to the Mayor’s proposed budget and accompanying legislation.  The 2011 city budget is expected to pass when it goes to the city's full council for formal adoption on Monday, Nov. 22.

Due to the deep recession the city was forced to reduce this year’s budget by $15 million. Additionally, the city faced a $67 million budget shortfall for 2011, which with the passage of State Initiative 1107 and the continued decline in property sales resulted in another $5.8 million dollar reduction from the Mayor's proposed 2011-2 budget.


In non-monetary terms, this means ongoing layoffs and reductions in services in public safety , human services, facility maintenances, parks and streets.

Seattle City Council member Nick Licata intended to soften the cuts by capturing a State to City flow-through system in which the $8.5 million of the State is used on human services and other critical services. The $8.5 million is compensation for the purchase of the MOHAI building and McCurdy Park, which the State needs to occupy to replace the State Route 520 floating bridge. The Mayor's proposed budget released on September 27 did not include this arrangement.



As a result of the Council accepting this new arrangement, these MOHAI funds paid for about 80% of the projects and services that were to be cut or not funded.

The key additions and restorations are in human services, neighborhoods, libraries, and public safety.



The priority items in the human services sector of the budget include $100,000 for unanticipated cost increases for homeless shelter providers, $297,000 funding for low income batterer's intervention programs and a $257,000 Master Home Environmentalist program aimed at reducing health care costs by helping to eliminate environmental hazards the home.

In the Public Safety sector, $84,000 of the budget will go to Seattle Neighborhood Group programs to provide community outreach and crime prevention workshops; $400,000 will be spend on an effort to bring defense of police action cases into the Law Department; and $292,000 for three crime victim advocates that tend to the medical, emotional and financial needs of crime victims and witnesses.

A part of the budget is specifically focused on Seattle’s neighborhoods. $600,000 of the budget will restore some of the reductions in the Neighborhood Matching fund; another $600,000 is intended for Neighborhood District Coordinators; $104,000 for Community Centers to relocate some department offices and to double the number of drop-in hours including in Ballard; and $227,000 for Historic Preservation funding.



Additionally, the City hopes to keep culture alive by supporting the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs to fund community cultural facilities; a $400,000 Library funding for maintenance and capital improvements; and $50,000 for the Wing Luke Museum to continue programs that benefit underserved populations.

The Budget Committee also rejected the Mayor’s proposal to increase the commercial parking tax and set a maximum hourly meter rate of $4.00 with a minimum rate of 75 cents.

For more information on budget actions please visit the Seattle City Council Budget Committee site. You can also find the 2011-2012 Budget Highlights document here.