The Issaquah City Council passed a $138 million 2018 budget 6-1 at the Dec. 18 council meeting.
The budget, presented by Finance Director Jennifer Olson, includes $138,088,457 in expenditures and $130,427,888 in revenues.
The city will begin the year with $81,275,390 in total funds and end the year with $74,386,321 for a $6,889,069 decrease in the fund balance.
In a letter to Mayor Fred Butler on Dec. 18, Council President Stacy Goodman noted that the “General Fund ending balance would be increased $368,512 from the 2017 estimated ending fund balance, leaving a fund balance reserve of 34% of expenditures — above the financial reserve policy maximum of 20%.”
“The Council considered one-time versus on-going revenue and expenditures, and remains cautious about authorizing on-going expenditures that are without matching revenues, as funding such items may affect the City’s long-term financial stability,” Goodman continued in the letter.
The council, Goodman noted, authorized several changes to the General Fund, such as adding funds for a parking enforcement pilot program, for a City Council retreat, for a state park Environmental Impact Statement study, for a new turf replacement program, for the demolition of an unused city property and for debt services costs associated with the Providence Point intersection project.
In General Fund revenues, the council added a transfer from the Art Fund for art-related costs.
The council also chose to remove the salaries and benefits of three police officer positions that had been proposed for 2018, instead directing the administration to analyze the need for these positions in the first quarter of the year. This saved the General Fund $350,000.
Throughout 2017, residents in the Issaquah Highlands complained to the city about the amount of speeding going on in their neighborhood, and expressed at a public forum on the topic in July that hiring more police officers would help the situation.
The council spent seven work sessions on the budget after it was proposed by Butler in October, and a public hearing on the budget was held over three council meetings since Nov. 20.
Councilmember Paul Winterstein said that the budget process was much improved in quality from last year.
“It’s worth taking a moment to stop and recognizing what we have accomplished this year and you deserve much of that credit, so thank you to you and your staff,” he told Olson.
Councilmember Bill Ramos, the lone dissenting vote, said that the budget “started out very opaque” and that he was “not comfortable with the budget as it’s come about.”
Councilmember Mariah Bettise suggested that some of these concerns be brought up in a work session early in 2018 “while it’s still fresh in our minds.” Councilmember Tola Marts seconded this request.
“Before you start asking for money, you need to really know where your budget is and tighten things up and look at it a little more wholly so when you look at one item and you agree to fund that, you know you’re deciding not to fund something else,” he said. “I think we tend to pick it out too much one piece at a time and don’t weigh that balance.”
