Seattle’s voter-approved Metropolitan Parks District levies taxes to directly supplement the city’s parks system budget. Currently on the table is a proposal to roughly double the levy amount for “cycle 2,” the next six years. Next week the nine City Council members, who collectively comprise the Parks District board, will …
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SPD Recruitment and Retention Plan
This morning Mayor Harrell unveiled a new recruitment and retention plan to address the dramatic drop in SPD officers over the past two years. The plan centers on four key themes: Make hiring easier, faster and more efficient; Attract top recruits with competitive compensation; Recruit candidates committed to the community; …
Continue readingState economic forecast update
The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council has issued its forecast update for June. This is a detailed report of national and state economic forecast indicators, with predictions for the next few years. Given everything that is in play at the moment — war in Ukraine, the ongoing COVID …
Continue readingSeattle Public Schools proposed 2022-2023 budget
Tonight the Seattle School Board is scheduled to vote on approving the school district budget for the next academic year. The proposed budget includes $1.64 billion in expenses, while spending down about $287 million of the accumulated fund balance. You can find more detail about the budget development process here. …
Continue readingState rainy day funds
According to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Washington is the only state with a negative “rainy day fund.” This is in contrast to the nationwide trend leading to record amounts accumulated in states’ rainy day funds. The state does have other reserves it can draw on in times of …
Continue readingKing County Regional Homeless Authority Proposed 2023 Budget
Last week the Governing Committee of the King County Regional Homeless Authority approved a proposed 2023 budget for the organization of $227,403,776, an increase of more than $66 million over the 2022 budget. Here is the presentation to the Governing Committee on the proposed budget. It contains a significant amount …
Continue readingSeattle Parks District Cycle 2 funding
The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners have released their recommendations for $30 million of funding for the Seattle Parks District 2023-2028 planning cycle. In addition, the Board identified an “Option B” that only funds $15 million of the highest-priority items, in case cuts need to be made due to …
Continue readingCity of Seattle 6-year financial planning memo
This week the Seattle City Council held a discussion on the six-year projections for the city’s budget, and issued a memo summarizing the situation. Last fall as part of writing the 2022 city budget, the city developed financial forecasts for the General Fund portion of the budget: the dollars with …
Continue readingHow Seattle Spent its ARPA Federal Funds
Last week the City Budget Office provided an update on the “Seattle Rescue Plan,” how the city is spending the nearly $300 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds that it has received. I hope you found this article valuable. If you did, please take a moment to make …
Continue readingCity of Seattle Economic Forecast and Revenue Update
Last week the city’s new Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts presented its April update to its forecast of the city’s economic situation, and of its revenue forecast for city government for 2022. The city’s employment recovery is finally catching up with national levels, though the leisure and hospitality sectors …
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