Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Zero-based budgeting’ may be implemented

It’s too early to know if 2008 tax and fee revenues will meet Post Falls’ projections, but the city will soon be pushing forward with budgeting for next year. And this year the approach to drafting that budget could dramatically change.

The Post Falls City Council is scheduled to discuss using “zero-based budgeting” at its meeting on Tuesday.

Until now the city has always used a baseline budgeting approach in which departments start with their budget from the previous year and then request additional employees or other funding, said Post Falls Finance Director Shelly Enderud. It’s then up to the council to decide whether to grant requests for additional funding or to cut funding from various departments.

With zero-based budgeting each department starts with nothing and must submit requests for all existing employees and other line items, justifying the need for each.

Zero-based budgeting is the approach espoused by City Administrator Eric Keck, who said that zero-based budgeting would better allow council members to evaluate city priorities. Some departments are already jockeying for more money.

“We have to discuss what we’re doing, whey we’re doing it and if each expense item can be justified as providing a necessary service to the community,” Keck said.

Keck said many departments, including the police and street departments, are running pretty lean.

Post Falls Councilwoman Linda Wilhelm said she’ll wait until the meeting Tuesday to decide which budget approach best suits the city. Still, she said that the zero-based budgeting method has advantages over having each department start its budget process with the same funding from the previous year.

“I think a lot of the departments need to be relooked at,” Wilhelm said.

Enderud said that either budget program will work as long city officials understand that some items cannot be cut.

She cited her department’s budget to print and mail utility bills as an example of a mandatory budget line. If those bills aren’t sent out, the city doesn’t get paid for utilities.

In addition to which budget method to use, council members will also need to decide whether to budget for 2009 alone or 2009 and 2010.

Enderud said discussion of specific budget figures at this point will be preliminary. Most city revenue doesn’t start coming in until the second quarter of the year so it’s still too early to tell if 2008 revenues will meet projections.

The city’s 2008 budget tops $14.5 million – about the same as the budget in 2007.

Keck said he doesn’t anticipate any windfalls.

“I predict revenues will be flat this year,” he said.