(Sorry to do so many posts based on the mayor’s presser this morning, but it was seriously action-packed.)
The city’s budget office will have to “revise the [city's] revenue estimates downward” for next year, Mayor Mike McGinn said this morning. Currently, the city estimates a $56 million budget shortfall for 2011. However, both the state and the county recently revised their own revenue forecasts due to the ongoing recession and delayed economic recovery.
“It’s a very volatile situation right now,” McGinn said. “Because of that volatility, we are taking a real close look at that revenue forecast and it will be lower.”
Asked whether he had given further thought to city union employees’ demands that he cut managers’ and strategic advisors’ salaries before reducing their cost-of-living raises next year, McGinn said, “It’s not either/or; it’s all of the above.” He did say he expects that an executive order he issued just after he came into office, requiring all city departments to get mayoral permission before hiring contractors, will “have a chilling effect on the number of contracts,” potentially saving the city money.
McGinn also fielded a question about what effect the many initiatives on the ballot this year could have on the city budget.
While the city would lose about $3 million if the liquor-privatization and candy-tax repeal measures pass, McGinn said, the city would benefit if voters pass a proposed sales-tax increase in King County. That measure, which splits the proceeds between the county and its cities, would bring the city an estimated $12 million a year, of which one third would have to be spent on public safety.
McGinn said he plans to propose new revenue sources, “including new fees and charges” for city services, as part of his budget proposal to the council. McGinn will release that proposal in about three weeks.
