EVERETT — The Everett City Council on Wednesday approved a $505.7 million budget for 2009 that calls for no layoffs, hiring freezes or cuts in city services.
The new spending plan sets aside extra money for crime fighting, redevelopment of Everett’s riverfront and 5.8 percent raises for the city government’s highest-paid managers.
City officials may be forced next year to winnow spending if revenue shortfalls emerge because of the tanking economy.
The bulk of the budget was pieced together in the summer, before deep troubles on Wall Street began rippling across the world’s financial markets.
“We’ve got an economic environment that’s unprecedented,” said Debra Bryant, Mayor Ray Stephanson’s top adviser and budget chief. “Having said that, we’re always keeping an eye on the budget. But we are more aware of it this year.”
With an eye toward potentially dismal months in sales tax collections, a key revenue source for the city, Everett administrators are taking measures to control costs.
One example: Before filling vacant job positions, city department managers first need the blessing of the mayor’s office. Only positions deemed critical will be filled for now, Bryant said.
“We are struggling, along with everyone else, to determine the depth and breadth of the downturn,” she said.
Some capital projects, such as new self-checkout scanners at the library, will be postponed until after the first quarter of 2009, when city officials hope to have a better grasp on the city government’s fiscal outlook.
In the meantime, most city departments are still expecting their budgets to increase from 1 percent to 10 percent. Much of the additional spending is attributable to negotiated cost-of-living adjustments already promised to city employee unions.
Cost-of-living raises for police officers this year alone will cost the city about $700,000. A new contract for firefighters will cost another $800,000 next year. A new contract with the city government’s largest labor union, similarly, is expected to cost more than $4 million over three years.
City Councilman Paul Roberts said Everett can pass a budget with no cuts because of prudent financial planning. The city’s conservative approach, he says, has allowed it to build healthy reserves. The city will end this year with more than $27 million in reserves, including $4 million in a rainy day fund.
“The city of Everett is in an enviable position compared with other jurisdictions in the state,” Roberts said. “I don’t say that with any glee at all, but the mayor, the administration and the council have made some tough decisions that allow us not to make cuts in services.”
Even so, Roberts said the city may revisit the budget if slumping revenues force the city to draw down reserves.
Overall the city’s budget is expected to grow to $505.7 million, up nearly 3 percent from the adopted 2008 budget of $492.3 million.
The budget also calls for adding about 33 jobs to the city’s payroll from this time last year, bringing Everett’s total work force to 1,208.
Most of the growth in jobs and spending will happen in the city’s water and sewer utility, an enterprise fund, meaning that the utility must support its operations with rates as if it were a business. Stephanson’s plan calls for increasing the department’s budget to $104 million in 2009, up from $79 million this year.
A recently approved sewer and water rate increase will provide the utility with enough revenue to hire 13 additional full-time employees and continue working on a number of major sewer and water upgrades. The utility hopes to soon sell $40 million in bonds to support sewer and water projects.
In his budget message, Stephanson said the city has retired the last of its voter-approved senior housing debt and has made final payments on the Everett Performing Arts Center, Fire Station 7 near Silver Lake and the Main Library expansion.
The budget calls for a 9 percent increase in the police department’s budget, which includes the addition of a detective to keep track of where high-risk sex offenders are living and a civilian crime analyst to target auto-theft crimes.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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