Budget Survey

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Budget Reductions Likely to Dig Deeper into Services for 2011

The economic recession has significantly reduced revenues to the City of Snohomish, and as the economy continues to perform below previous levels further budget reductions are likely. Many of the City’s operations (General Fund) programs are funded by sales tax revenues, and that means the City’s budget is highly sensitive to the general health of the economy. When sales taxes dip, the City’s budget feels the pain.

The City Council began implementing its budget-reductions in late 2008 in order to react quickly to the sudden drop in revenues. It placed on hold a number of planned improvements for community services and projects. Existing services were reduced, resulting in the layoff of 2.5 full-time City employee positions and eliminating or freezing vacancies for a variety of other full-time positions and part-time help. Additionally, the City Council has directed staff to increase efforts in seeking grant funds wherever feasible to accomplish projects that would otherwise require City taxpayer funds for ongoing services. These grants typically support capital improvements (parks, streets and other facilities).

Changes requiring unionized and non-unionized employees to shoulder more costs for health care, plus strategic and targeted cuts in employee benefits, training, outside professional services and other budget costs also helped achieve timely reductions in spending. Cumulative budget reductions since 2008 amount to approximately $2 million, as seen on the General Fund Expenditures below:

Year: Amount
2008: $9.8million
2009: $8.6million
2010: $7.9million(Estimated)
2011: $8.0million(Projected)

Despite these reductions, the City has so far continued to deliver most of its basic services with minimal impacts to citizens. However, the fact that our economy is recovering on a much slower pace than expected requires the City to make deeper budget cuts next year. Certain fixed costs for City operations—such as employee health care—continue to rise due to outside factors over which the City has little control. The inevitable result for the City’s budget is the need to further reduce spending. It may not be possible to make these reductions without noticeably impacting services to citizens in 2011.

The Citizens Budget Survey below is an opportunity for you to communicate your priorities to the City Council for the 2011 Budget it will adopt this fall. The information below shows how General Fund (non-utility) programs are currently funded by the City:

Council Department-$198,924
City Manager Department-$898,398
Support Services Department-$456,000
Public Safety Department-$4,025,485
Public Works Department-$1,587,488
Planning & Development Department-$756,793