SPOKANE, Wash. - After
meeting for 4 hours and taking public testimony the Spokane City Council voted
in favor of the 2013 budget.
By
a vote of 4 to 3 the City Council approved Mayor David Condon's quote "no growth
budget" as the city attempts to make up a multi-million dollar budget
shortfall.
The
budget includes the elimination of 100 positions across the city, and while most
of them are and have been vacant, 14 people within the city will be laid off in
areas like, the Parks Department, Municipal Court, Human Services and Parking.
Also,
roughly $2-million dollars will be cut from both the police and fire
budgets.
What
that means, is the police force will lose 21 currently vacant positions, and for
the fire department, 23 positions
will be eliminated including a full-time firefighting crew at Station 9 on the
lower south hill.
A
medical crew will be based there but for fires, crews from surrounding stations
will have to respond.
Trying
to offset those cuts a motion to raise property taxes in the city was
discussed but ultimately shot down by a vote of 4 to 3.
After
hearing public testimony council members explained what led them to their
decision.
Council
member Salvatori called it a solid budget that reflects the economy and lack of
revenue the city is able to collect.
Council President Stuckart was decidedly against the budget saying he could not support
a budget that included raises for a few high level city employees while laying
off 100 others.
Departments
will now have less than a month to figure out how to deal with these
cuts.
The
budget goes into effect January 1st.
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