Bad Budget News for Tacoma

It appears that the City Council will be hearing bad news regarding the budget today.  The external audit of the City’s financial situation by Bellevue firm Hebert Research Inc. is complete, and the details will be presented at today’s noon study session.  According to a report on King 5 the preliminary news is that the numbers crunched by Interim City Manager Arellano and staff last fall are most likely slightly on the optimistic side.

According to Jim Hebert of Hebert Research Inc., the actual budget gap is likely to prove to be thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the numbers the City and Council have been working with in adjusting the budget to this point. 

This finding is at odds with the separate study done by a San Francisco firm hired by the police union, as reported in a TNT article on Saturday.  The union’s accountant suggested, based on public records, that the budget gap was actually smaller than thought.  Hebert Research, working closely with the city, disputes claims by that report that the City could borrow from other areas of its budget to solve the general fund gap.  The police union report also questioned Tacoma’s budget reporting practices, but we learned from a TNT article yesterday that, according to the State Office of Financial Management, those practices are in keeping with state budget reporting standards. 

Today the Council will also hear reports on layoffs to this point, so we’ll have a clearer idea where we stand on non public safety jobs.  The City has been working with police and fire unions to save jobs for their members.  With this budget news, the number of police and firefighters out of the 100 proposed layoffs whose jobs can be saved will rely on any solutions they have found.

In describing the job of crunching the budget numbers in this instance, Hebert said “Behind the numbers are people and jobs and it’s like having a thousand pounds of bricks on your shoulders.”  We’re guessing the City Council and staff are familiar with the feeling by now.

Watch the King 5 report for more.  (As a sidebar, we’re fascinated by the man-on-the-street reporting of the Tacoma budget news… from a reporter on the street in Bellevue, where apparently the accountant has been adding up the figures on a nearby park bench.)

Read about the police union report from The News Tribune.

Read about the Washington State Office of Financial Management statement from The News Tribune.