Sammamish city expenditures are forecast to catch up with the city’s revenues and the City Council must do something about it.

In a financial outlook presentation to council members during the final day of their retreat Jan. 21 in Tacoma, city finance director Aaron Antin stated the city’s operating expenditures rates will meet those of operating revenues by 2020.

“Our point of this analysis is to look at what point will those expenditures exceed revenues in a given year, and you’re going to be using some other mechanism to address that,” Antin said.

Antin provided a review of the 2017-18 biennial budget, which showed a revenue balance of $154 million for the total budget of $216 million. Property taxes accounted for the largest share of the revenue budget at 37 percent, or $56 million.

The city is planning for $199 million of expenditures in the 2017-18 budget, with 38 percent, or $75 million of expenditures, coming through the Capital Fund and 37 percent, or $73 million, coming through the General Fund. Antin noted the 2017-18 budget includes $11.2 million of budgeted contingencies.

The fund at the end of 2017-18 showed a balance of $17 million, with $5.7 million from the city’s General Fund and $6.5 million from the city’s Street Fund.

Antin stated the rate of divergence would vary, but estimated an operating deficit of $600,000 in 2021 and $1.2 million in 2022. To increase city revenue, Antin proposed the council explore several options: a property tax increase, a utility tax, a business and occupation tax or a transportation benefit district/vehicle license fee.

City Council members agreed to hold a retreat for long-range financial planning in July and also entertained holding a public town hall meeting on the issue sometime in the future.

City Manager Lyman Howard commented while the forecast was alarming, he did not necessarily believe a crisis was imminent, yet.

“We budget conservatively. From a revenue standpoint, we tend to underestimate our revenues and we tend to overestimate our expenditures. So for all practical purposes, I’d say that 2020 is probably two years early that [the crossover] would potentially actually happen,” Howard said. “So I don’t think we have a crisis based on the way that we operate but the condition of the two lines of slope, that is a reality that expenditures are growing faster. They have curbed revenues.”

Council approves RFP for TMP

The City Council showed a consensus to approve a request for proposals to create a Transportation Master Plan for the city of Sammamish.

In a presentation to the council, public works director Steve Leniszewski stated the Transportation Master Plan will establish a 20-year road map to achieve the community’s vision for “a safe, accessible and reliable multi-modal transportation system.”

“The TMP gives the city an opportunity to add things … transit, all the other types of travels, connectivity, planning, programming, programs,” Leniszewski said. “So [there’s] a lot more at our control, what we want [and] how does this community want to grow, transportation speaking.”

Among the larger goals for the TMP would include engaging the community to help identify transportation solutions and priorities and addressing and supporting growth.

The next steps for the Transportation Master Plan process will be selecting a consultant in March, a project kickoff in April, the beginning of public outreach this spring and plan adoption targeted for 2018.

Council to go back to four monthly meetings

In an effort to curb council meetings stretching into the wee hours of the morning, the Sammamish City Council approved a six-month trial of adding a monthly study session to its schedule, moving back from three monthly meetings to four.

The new study session will take place the first Monday of the month, unless rescheduled due to a holiday, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The council’s other three meetings will continue to take place at 6:30 p.m. the first three Tuesdays of the month.

A council objective for the new schedule was to continue having one week off from meetings. Under the new schedule, back-to-back meetings are tentatively set to take place during the first week of each month.