Council To Vote On Austere Budget Tonight Present Plan Calls For Higher Taxes, Utility Rates And Salaries, End Of Dare Program

Property taxes, utility rates and employee salaries will increase if the Spokane City Council goes along with the proposed 1996 spending plan.

The council plans to vote tonight on next year’s budget, which includes more money for police officers but proposes dumping the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.

At the insistence of outgoing Councilman Joel Crosby, the council decided Thursday during a last-minute budgeting session to add money for cops.

“We have a budget proposal that has a tax increase and fewer police. That goes against what the public told us,” said Crosby, adding that while he was ending his council tenure, his colleagues weren’t.

“(Taxpayers) will remember,” he warned.

The council voted unanimously to add back into the Police Department’s proposed budget the eight positions lost to spending cuts. Crosby argued that cutting staff would only increase overtime costs.

“I have a great reluctance to pass this at this point when we don’t know how we’ll pay for them,” Councilman Orville Barnes said.

This year’s sliding revenues forced City Manager Roger Crum and his staff to make several cuts in next year’s spending.

Early projections showed that - unless those cuts were made - the city would lack $6.5 million needed to provide the same services next year as this year.

Sales tax revenues are down. Construction is flat. Real estate sales are slacking. Jail bills are way up.

The proposed budget calls for:

Eliminating the $550,000-a-year DARE program by June 30, replacing it with a program that uses police officers in the classroom on a less frequent basis.

Eliminating the city’s $110,500-a-year International Development Department, and bidding out some of the department’s services for about $62,000.

Raising property taxes to the 6 percent, state-imposed lid.

Raising utility rates an average of 74 cents each month. The Water Department is asking to bump rates 3 percent, and the Sewer Department wants a 1.8 percent raise. The Solid Waste Department isn’t asking for an increase.

Eliminating 40 staff positions through attrition and the city’s voluntary severance program.

Levying fines for “false alarms,” where police respond to a burglary alarm that triggered accidentally.

Cutting expenses such as travel, cellular phone use, consultant contracts and temporary-seasonal employees by about $760,000.

Next year’s budget allows for contract-negotiated salary increases for laborers, secretaries, record-keepers and professional employees at 3.25 percent.

Under the proposal, the city’s top five administrators would get a 2.75 increase. Those five include Crum, Finance Director Pete Fortin, Planning Services Director Irv Reed, Police Chief Terry Mangan and Fire Chief Bobby Williams.

Police and firefighters are in the midst of contract negotiations, which leaves a big question mark looming over the budget. A 3.25 percent increase is included in the plan.

Also tonight, the council will consider an ordinance that allows temporary signs in the central business district until June 30.

Several small businesses collectively cried out last summer when the city’s code enforcement department began cracking down on illegal sandwich-board signs.

Attorney Steve Eugster drafted the proposed ordinance that allows one sign per business, no bigger than 3 feet in diameter. The signs would be allowed only during business hours.

The council plans to revisit the issue in June, possibly expanding the ordinance citywide.

A briefing for residents begins at 3 p.m. in the lower-level briefing room of City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. The council briefing starts at 3:30 p.m. and the meeting at 6 p.m.

, DataTimes