City is doing what it can during crisis

We at the city are working at full capacity to find ways to help our local businesses and citizens — but we can’t go outside the boundaries of the law or the state constitution. At the same time, we have a duty to be ethical and measured in our responses to our local businesses — we cannot favor one operation over another.

We’ve been listening to the public via social media, direct email requests and phone conversations. We hear the need, and we understand the rising concern. Along with that, we understand that empathy doesn’t replace action. We are working closely with the Association of Washington Cities, the Municipal Resource Service Center, and our state and federal contacts to find what avenues we have available to assist our people.

We have been actively lobbying the state for an appropriate distribution of federal funds. The economic impact will not just fall on our businesses — the city is also projected to lose millions in revenue over a long term. This will potentially impact what services we can provide. Local municipalities are also not covered under the same federal reimbursement plans that private companies can leverage for payroll protection or time off for employees. The fourth wave of federal small business packages are coming shortly — and will offer in excess of $350 billion. There will be additional resources available.

Some things we can’t do

We also are beholden to the state constitution’s prohibition on the gifting of public funds. Once taxes of any sort have been collected, those funds are considered public — and the rules are firm on the distribution of funds to private, for-profit businesses. It is illegal. If there were a legal way to return any taxes gathered, this would go to the individual taxpayer, not the business that served as a point of collection for these state funds.

The city is continually subject to review by the state auditors, and we are required to stay within the spending purposes that specific taxes are collected in order to achieve. We are not able to re-allocate funds from their intended purpose. This is not just applicable to our current situation, but has been the constant for recovery through past times of economic hardship. Again — we want to help, and are working through all the avenues we have available as a local government in order to be able to do this. An example of one area we were able to provide relief is the reduction of the public utility base rates by $588,000 — and we applied those savings equally to all city utility customers — residential and commercial.

A long-term steward

We are continuing to look outside of the general fund to help businesses and residents. But we are not able to work outside the law. Municipalities are designed to provide consistency through economic highs and lows. Public operations differ from private operations in this way, and provide benefit to our greater community through continuity. We are stewards of public lands, public funds, long-term planning, and, most importantly of the public trust.

Our city has prudently managed our financial outlook over the past few years in careful preparation for both times of economic strength, and for times of economic hardship. The city’s operations are all considered essential, and we are doing our best to continue to provide services to our citizens. In addition to planning for staffing expenses, if it becomes necessary, we will develop plans for reductions. However, we have our efforts fully going to exploring each and every way we can provide relief.

We will work through this and get through these hard times as a community.

This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 12:00 AM.