City of Spokane announces 2011 budget cuts to make up for $10 million deficit.

Concerned about the economic downturn, the City of Spokane has brought the 2011 budget to the table six months ahead of government mandates to get ahead of what will be a $10 million deficit.

This initial plan will give the citizens of Spokane an opportunity to weigh in. According to Mayor Mary Verner, City Council has taken these cuts with a somber dismay.
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The city’s rainy day fund of $5 million was tapped into last year. With the economy as it now stands, the mayor says the city will be unable to rely on this fund long-term. The hiring freeze previously referred to as “soft” will now be “hard,” and senior leaders’ pay has been frozen, and the city is asking its employees to accept cuts to their healthcare to make up $1 million

City hall will change its hours of operations to four ten-hour days. The mayor said they anticipate $50,000 in energy savings alone.

Police, fire and street grants are up, and as a result, positions created by those grants will not be continued. The police union has agreed to a zero percent raise in wages, and the department will lose 14 officers and switch six detectives to patrol. A K-9 unit will be down and neighborhood resource officers will be cut, including civilian positions.

The fire department will respond to calls, as usual, but if overtime money runs out, stations will suffer from rolling closures to make up the hole in the budget.

Mayor Verner referred to the West Plains annexation as a possible source for more income in the future and said she expects negotiations with the county to move quickly. This would bring in not only more residential taxes, but utility taxes as well as the Waste-to-Energy plant will be included in that merge. However, she didn’t know what the county would want in exchange for the annexation.