Puyallup’s proposed city budget for next year doesn’t include employee layoffs or fee or tax increases for “basic, core city services,” according to the city manager.
But water, sewer and stormwater utility users will see their rates go up 2.1 to 4.1 percent if City Manager Ralph Dannenberg’s recommended 2012 budget is adopted.
The money generated from the rate increases – officials this week didn’t provide an estimated amount – will help pay for repair and replacement of the aging systems’ pipes, pump stations and other infrastructure.
The typical monthly water, sewer and stormwater charges for a single-family home would go from $96.03 to $98.53.
There also would be a 0.7 percent increase in the tax on private utilities, such as cable and natural gas, with the roughly $600,000 generated dedicated to street maintenance and repair.
“Our roads and utilities must be maintained in the interest of both safety and cost-efficiency,” City Manager Ralph Dannenberg wrote in his budget. If the city doesn’t plan for its long-term needs, they could become “financial crises of our own making,” he wrote.
The City Council began to review the budget Tuesday in a session that focused on the general fund, which pays for services such as police and the library. The recommended 2012 general fund is $37.05 million, up 2.3 percent over this year’s adopted budget.
It includes a fund balance – or “rainy day” money held in reserve – of $3.1 million. That’s equal to 8.4 percent of the general fund and is within the council’s goal of having a fund balance of 8 percent to 12 percent, Dannenberg said.
The total recommended budget for next year, including debt service, capital projects and utilities, is $99.6 million.
While the budget doesn’t include layoffs, it would eliminate five vacant positions. But it would add a stormwater specialist position and convert a temporary system administrator job to permanent.
Puyallup eliminated 12 positions in 2010. The city’s staffing levels currently are less than what they were in 1999, adjusting for the shift of the city’s fire department to Central Pierce Fire & Rescue, Puyallup officials said.
Dannenberg’s recommended budget reflects cost-of-living pay increases included in already-approved labor contracts – some dating back to 2009 – for many employees, including police officers and engineering technicians. It also includes a 2 percent COLA for nonrepresented employees.
For 2011, nonrepresented employees didn’t get a COLA, and unions agreed to forgo scheduled increases or give up the equivalent amount of money in some other way.
Two labor contracts are being negotiated this year – for custodians and for corrections and parking enforcement officers. The corrections and parking officers’ contract went to the council for approval last week but was turned down 5-2.
Mayor Kathy Turner, who voted with the majority, said she was concerned about approving a contract when she hadn’t yet seen the 2012 recommended budget.
The union and city will return to the bargaining table, Dannenberg said.
Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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