A Budget and Anti-Panhandling at County Council

We found ourselves at today’s Pierce County Council meeting hoping to get a bit more of a glimpse into the big fat binder that is the proposed 2009 county budget. County Exec Ladenburg made his presentation of a balanced, but austere, budget. Tax revenues down. Actually, a ‘perfect storm’ of lost revenue in the words of the Exec. The result … the budget reveals a decrease of 3.4% over last year. Capital budgets going down. Lots of staff cuts across nearly all departments. We’re curious about a couple of them .. but we’ll save those questions for later. Yet, public safety spending going up. The News Tribune has a decent summary of the main points. There were no questions. There will be plenty of time for public comment and questions in the coming months.

Then, following several proclamations and appointments, came a rather interesting ordinance.

Do you remember when the City of Tacoma passed its anti-panhandling ordinance in 2006? Well, Pierce County Proposal No. 2008-45s is the County’s equivalent measure. It adopts a “definition of pedestrian and vehicle interference, placing reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on solicitations in certain locations.” After a long explanation from staff and a few comments, the ordinance was passed by the Council. Councilmember Barbara Gelman quipped that when the City of Tacoma passed its resolution, people complained about the panhandlers moving into the County … and maybe now we’ll be hearing complaints from Portland.