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Soundings
Let's Focus on Needs
2008
By Jean Godden
Chair of the Seattle City Council's Budget Committee
Times are tough everywhere. We all shudder as we read news headlines:
"Economy shrinks"
"Tough times ahead"
"Companies announce layoffs"
Some of the news stories tell personal accounts that touch our hearts. There's a story about a former food bank contributor who now visits as a customer to put food on the table for his three sons. Or there's the tale about the couple who lost their home and were forced to sell all their possessions, including the tricycle, sold for $3, while their three-year-old was still riding it.
While needs grow, cities, too, are hurting. In the past few weeks, we in Seattle learned that a steep drop in retail sales has blown a hole in anticipated tax receipts. That translates into an estimated $19 million shortfall in revenues needed to fund the city's 2009 and 2010 budgets.
News of the gap comes despite cutbacks already made by the mayor who foresaw a slowing economy, but, due to timing, had to base his proposed budget on August figures. As we look back, August was the last of the good old times, before September's economic melt down.
So it fell to the City Council to make some tough decisions, trimming back the mayor's proposals, yet trying to keep delivering core city services. The message couldn't have been clearer. To honor citizen priorities, the city would have to do more with less and to prepare to cut even deeper if 2010 turns out, as predicted, to be worse than 2009.
From the start of its budget process, the council has been working cooperatively with the mayor's office to identify reductions that would not adversely impact direct services or hurt vulnerable people. The projected shortfall, while not as deep as King County's budget chasm, poses a significant challenge. The city must approve a balanced budget. Unlike the federal government, we cannot spend money we don't have.
Our hard work and cooperative efforts have resulted in passage of a budget that streamlines government on the one hand, but still manages to deliver increased spending in three areas: shelter and food delivery, library collections and support services for domestic violence victims. We're budgeting for a $1 million increase in food delivery services on top of the mayor's proposed half million addition. The extra money will go to home delivery and bulk purchases for food banks. It will also help eligible families apply for food stamps.
However, while we were successful in getting through the year with few reductions we're looking ahead with the realization that things will likely get worse before they get better. 2009 does not offer much hope for being an easier or more robust budget year.
As a long-time chronicler of this city, I've seen lean times before. Seattle has faced many recessions throughout the years. From the 1971 billboard that asked, "Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?" through the dot-com collapse in the early part of this decade, we have made it through tough times.
We'll make it through this downturn. We'll come out stronger. In the meantime, we're working together, being creative and sacrificing when and where necessary. Our goal, as it should be, is to put people first.
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