Proposed Budget Cuts for 2013-2014

Tacoma’s City Manager T.C. Broadnax presented his plans for the 2013 – 2014 biennium budget to the City Council today. The number bound to get the most attention coming out of this is the 217 FTEs Broadnax is recommending be cut. Although not happy news, this could hardly be considered surprising.

There will be other cuts, more or less across the board, as well as some departmental reorganization to make up the budget gap of more than $60 million in the next two years.

Of the 217 FTEs Broadnax is recommending for reduction, 64 are vacant already, leaving 153 positions for elimination or early retirement. One chance that number might change would be concessions by the unions, which Broadnax did not assume in his budget, but the option is still being explored by the City.

Departmental reorganizations are another place the proposed budget looks for efficiencies.

Broadnax is recommending the creation of a new department, Neighborhoods and Community Services, which would bring together the functions of Human Rights and Human Services, Code Enforcement, and Community Based Services.

Utilities would be moving from Public Works to a new Environmental Services Department. And the Planning Division and Land Use Services would be removed from Community and Economic Development to their own division, allowing Community and Economic Development staff to focus on the work of economic development.

Today’s presentation was a high-level overview of cuts that we can expect to see in the next biennium budget, but there will be a lot of opportunities in the coming weeks to see more details. Council will have a number of budget workshops beginning October 9, as well as another round of community input meetings in all five council districts, and with key stakeholders in the community.

Whatever the final product of all these input meetings and workshops is, you can expect a public hearing on November 13, a first reading on November 27, and a final reading December 4. So, we can look forward to a balanced budget in time for the holidays this year.

For more, you can now download and view a pdf of today’s budget presentation and the full City of Tacoma 2013-2014 Proposed Biennial Operating and Capital Budget on the City website.