Tacoma Fire will get $2.5M in more funding, but city budget reveals difficulties ahead
The Tacoma Fire Department will receive $2.5 million more funding to maintain staffing levels after the City Council adopted a balanced budget late Tuesday that required significant cuts to address a structural deficit and set the stage for layoffs of some city employees.
Before city lawmakers unanimously adopted the 2025-26 biennial budget, they approved an amendment that provided the additional money to the Fire Department. Council member Joe Bushnell, one of two city lawmakers credited with negotiating the amendment, said the funding would prevent lowered fire staffing and coverage, known as “brownouts,” while reducing mandatory overtime costs.
“Community safety is clearly the number one priority, and our budget does reflect that,” Bushnell said during Tuesday evening’s Council meeting.
The additional funding fell short of the $4.2 million needed for 16 temporary roving positions that Fire Department employees had urged the city for weeks to retain amid staffing issues. Without the funding, rovers were expected to be reassigned elsewhere in the department. The department’s union leader said during Tuesday’s meeting that she recognized the budget discussion had been difficult but that the amendment had avoided cutbacks to service.
“This wasn’t an easy decision to be made,” said Allyson Hinzman, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 31. “However, we appreciate this council guaranteeing that we are not going to see service reductions from the Fire Department because ultimately that was our biggest ask: that no matter what happens, we don’t reduce service to our citizens, because that’s really all our members care about. We just want to show up and be able to do our job.”
Still, Hinzman warned that the department remained in “a critical state.”
“Although this helps stop the bleeding, this doesn’t solve the problem,” she said.
The increased funding will be pulled from the city’s $8.9 million in available cash without dipping into reserves, according to city spokesperson Maria Lee. The move won’t deepen the cuts that the city needed to enact to balance its budget, she told The News Tribune on Wednesday.
Last week, Lee said the city anticipated eliminating roughly 26 positions — most of which are filled — to curb $5.6 million in spending. An additional $4.7 million in necessary cuts would likely require further personnel reductions, according to Lee, who didn’t have details about which departments or positions would be impacted.
Council member Kiara Daniels said during a Council meeting last week that cuts would affect general government positions. On Tuesday, Daniels noted that the financial issues facing Tacoma were shared by surrounding cities and the state.
Tacoma has more than 3,600 employees, according to Mayor Victoria Woodards, and 4,300 full-time equivalent positions, a budget document shows.
“It’s hard to think about having to lay off people,” Woodards said during Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s hard to think about how we’re going to continue to do everything the community is yelling for with less resources, but it’s also responsible” to step up and make hard decisions.
Road ahead isn’t easier
The council’s adoption Tuesday of a nearly $635 million general fund budget ($4.7 billion overall) caps several months of work that began with a $24 million shortfall amid city expenses outpacing revenues. While city lawmakers noted positive investments in the budget, they acknowledged it didn’t feel good to make difficult choices they said were necessary.
More difficult choices lie ahead.
Woodards, who said this budget cycle felt like the toughest since she was elected to the council in 2009, pointed to a “new reality” — one where the city must continue to explore ways to cut spending in the absence of more revenues.
“What is hard is that this won’t be the last tough budget unless there is an influx of cash,” she said.
The city faces a $15 million deficit in the 2027-28 biennial budget, according to city officials, and is expected to begin talks next month about potential program and personnel cuts.
“I’m really concerned about what our conversations are going to look like in January, what programs are going to be on the table, what staff uncertainties are ahead of us,” City Council member Olgy Diaz said during the meeting Tuesday.
City lawmakers said they would prioritize increasing revenues, including potentially through levies and bonds and by drawing more businesses into Tacoma to boost the city’s tax base.
In a statement following the budget’s passage, the city highlighted that the spending plan maintained essential services and put the city on a stronger financial footing as it navigated economic challenges.
“Recognizing the impacts of inflation and a contracting economy, the City has taken a proactive approach to begin addressing the structural deficit in the General Fund,” the city said, including through reducing and realigning expenses, targeted fee increases and eliminating certain tax exemptions.
Roughly two-thirds of the general fund budget was dedicated to public safety, according to Bushnell. Funding increased for fire and police departments, the city said, and resources were allocated to mental health and chemical dependency services, youth programs and homelessness.
The budget included funding for street maintenance and repairs, incentives for the development of affordable housing units and low-income rental assistance, and support for job training and initiatives to attract new businesses, according to the city.
Its statement also hinted at challenges still to come.
“While the City faces the difficult decision of closing temporary and emergency shelters in June 2025 in its adopted budget due to the expiration of federal funding, it is actively seeking additional state funding to address the ongoing challenges of housing and homelessness,” the city said.
Some individual remarks from council members included within the city’s statement were clear about what budget reductions will mean.
“These budget cuts will impact our service levels and, as we will discuss in the new year, will require eliminating programs that serve the people of Tacoma,” Council member Sandesh Sadalge said. “Despite these challenges, we are continuing to advance our community’s priorities in this budget, especially by funding community safety above all else.”
Woodards, who grew emotional during Tuesday’s meeting when discussing the budget’s effect on employees, expressed optimism that the city would get through the current financial struggles.
“Next year will present its own set of challenges,” Woodards said in a statement, “but I believe we will navigate them together and emerge stronger, continuing to build a safe, prosperous, sustainable, and resilient city.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 1:57 PM.
