Pierce County Council passes annual budget

At this afternoon’s meeting, the Council adopted the budget on a 6–0 vote (Councilmember McCune was excused). The bill will now be transmitted to the Executive for his signature.

This is the third budget I’ve been part of since joining the County Council (my 19th in local government) and I’m particularly proud of the way this one turned out. In addition to our regular work, we’ve made some fiscal reforms that should leave the County in a much better financial position going forward. They also result in a more equitable distribution of our tax dollars to each community, particular the more rural areas.

I’m pleased by the substantially increased investments we’ve been able to make to essential services such as public safety and behavioral health. In addition, for the first time, Pierce County will operate a Veteran’s Therapeutic Court.

The total General Fund budget is for $325 million. Added to the nearly $100 million for roads, $33 million for human services, $26 million surface water, and various other funds, the all-fund total is just over $1 billion. An important caveat is that government accounting standards require transfers between funds be double counted, meaning that the actual amount of funds expended is significantly less than that amount.

In addition to the fiscal portion of the budget, we also pass implementing bills that give instructions to staff and adopt policy. For example, I’m pleased that the Council supported an amendment I sponsored to plan for centralization of our public records process. The idea is that while we’re a large, sprawling organization covering dozens of subject areas, I think there should be a single, predictable, and accountable process for requesting records.

More details to come…