Seattle council makes budget official
While Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels wanted to invest several million dollars in a new customer-service system, the City Council chose to spread that revenue among community services in the 2008 budget it passed Monday.
“I call this a community-development budget,” said Budget Committee Chairman Richard McIver. The $926 million general fund, which pays for the city’s operating costs, will benefit “the community as a whole - health concerns, human services, infrastructure, sidewalks,” he said. Including City Light’s budget, utility funds and federal grants, the total 2008 budget is $3.6 billion.
Although the state Supreme Court recently overturned a 2001 measure limiting property-tax increases to 1 percent a year, the City Council voted for the general property-tax levy to go up by just that much.
The council also passed a new square-footage tax for business owners who would have received a tax cut from a state change to the business-and-occupation tax. The city said affected business owners will not pay more in taxes than they would have under the old tax.
Taxes will go down for some small businesses. The council raised the minimum threshold for companies that pay business-and-occupation taxes to those that make $80,000 a year in revenue, from $50,000.
City revenues are projected to hit a historic high in 2008 because of a strong local economy. Nickels hoped to use some of that money to pay for a new 311 customer-service phone system.
The council instead chose to spend $2 million more than Nickels requested for the public-library collection to better keep up with demand, as well as add more money for pedestrian safety and human services.
It kept his proposal for public safety, including money to hire 20 new police officers and six park rangers to patrol downtown parks. The council also put money in a rainy-day fund, adding $1.5 million to the $4.7 million the mayor had proposed setting aside.
“Overall, we’re really pleased with the budget,” said Marty McOmber, spokesman for the mayor. “Almost all of the mayor’s priorities are in there. The one exception is 311. We think requiring people to wade through 1,000 phone numbers in the blue pages is not a good example of good customer service.”
Of the $8.9 million the mayor proposed to start 311, the council kept $500,000 to study how the city is doing with customer service.
Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com