Mired in a fiscal swamp of their own making, Tacoma City Council members recoiled Tuesday from the prospect of cutting all city funding for local events such as the Daffodil Festival, Ethnic Fest and neighborhood farmers markets.
“Not the right message,” Councilwoman Victoria Woodards said during an afternoon study session.
“I’m a little hesitant about lopping off all money,” added Councilman Joe Lonergan.
City leaders have scrambled since October to bridge a $33 million budget shortfall, largely created by overly rosy financial projections.
A series of cuts and accounting maneuvers, including negotiations with the city’s police and fire unions, reduced the gap to $12.7 million as of last week.
City leaders call that Phase 1. Tuesday’s study session opened the discussion of Phase 2, targeted for completion by March 31.
The council is considering a variety of longer-term measures that, if approved, would impose some new city taxes and fees. The proposals include a new $20 car-tab fee, a 5 percent ticket-admissions tax for some nonprofit events and eliminating a tax exemption for health care nonprofits. So far, the council has not committed to any of the revenue options.
Among the Phase 2 spending reductions are cuts to outside human-services programs, community groups and events. The proposal discussed Tuesday would trim $676,676 from the city’s expenditures in those areas.
Many of the possible human-services cuts are small, less than $10,000 in a number of cases – typically representing a percentage of an individual program’s funding. For instance, the proposal would cut $7,575 from the city’s contribution to Our Sisters’ House, a nonprofit organization that assists battered women. Another reduction would eliminate $61,100 from Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound’s programs.
“These are all excellent programs,” said Julian Bray, chairman of the city’s Human Services Commission. “If we could fund them all, we would.”
It was the prospect of cutting some community events entirely drew the most attention from council members, who pointed to the economic benefits gained by local businesses. Hearing opposition, Interim City Manager Rey Arellano said, “It’s just a proposal.”
Councilman Jake Fey, who attended the study session over a long-distance line from Washington, D.C., suggested a rethink. Rather than cutting some events entirely, he proposed deeper cuts across the board. Mayor Marilyn Strickland threw her support behind that idea.
The debate over the small cuts followed a presentation about the big ones: a rundown of the city’s earlier march to $20 million in reductions.
A large chunk of those cuts – $6.8 million – came from police and fire, which represent about 60 percent of the city’s $195.8 million in annual general-government spending. Nearly half of that savings grew out of negotiations with the city’s police and fire unions intended to spare scores of layoffs in both departments. The two unions agreed to defer cost-of-living raises until 2013 – the largest concession, along with voluntary retirements.
The deferral represents a cut for 2012, but it’s more like a delay; the city still owes the money. The unions’ negotiated contracts also dictate cost-of-living raises for the following year – a double shot that doesn’t include potential additional raises described in the contracts.
The fiscal reality appeared in two charts presented Tuesday by the city’s finance director, Bob Biles. The first chart showed the budget gap before the city’s Phase 1 cuts. The second chart showed the remaining gap, still daunting at $35 million in the 2013-14 biennium and $65 million in 2015-16.
That’s why the work of Phase 2 includes another round of negotiations with the police and fire unions. City spokesman Rob McNair-Huff said Tuesday that those talks are under way. Council members could see the results by March 6, three weeks before they hope to adopt the second round of cuts.
Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com
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