City Hall
Departments Lay Out More Budget Cuts
City departments continued presenting their proposed budget cuts to the city council's budget committee today, starting with the department of neighborhoods at 9:30 am. Mayor Mike McGinn asked the departments to come up with cuts to help close a 2011 budget shortfall of $67 million. (Other departments, including parks, transportation, and arts have already presented the mayor's proposed cuts to the council.)
Here's a summary of today's proposals:
• The Department of Neighborhoods would be cut 18.2 percent (or 12.7 percent once transfers to other departments are taking into account). The largest savings would come the elimination of six neighborhood service centers that don't take payments for city bills and traffic tickets; those centers, which are staffed by knowledgeable neighborhood district coordinators, provide information about available Seattle services and programs.
• DON would also see cuts to its food policy program (designed to create a progressive food policy for the city); historic preservation (the department would eliminate most funding to identify new historic properties); and assistance to immigrants and refugees (a portion of which would be maintained and transferred to the city's Office of Civil Rights). Additionally, funding for the Youth Commission, which holds community forums and advises the mayor and council on youth-related issues, which would be entirely eliminated. (Existing staff in the mayor's office would take over the work of youth commission staff.)
• The city's information technology department would be cut by 13.3 percent. In addition to cutting several positions and reducing tech support to city departments, DoIT would put off upgrading the Seattle Channel to HDTV for two years.
• The city would reduce funding for public-access television from around $625,000 a year to about $100,000, eliminating funding for Seattle Community Access Network and requiring companies to bid competitively on the contract.
"Public access television is really important, [but] it's become less important because of the ability to do video on a wide variety of platforms, including YouTube," DoIT director Bill Schrier told the committee. SCAN advocates turned out in force for a public hearing on the budget in Northgate last week.
Council members expressed concern about ending funding for SCAN. "It's not like YouTube is a new invention," council president Richard Conlin said. However, Schrier countered that the council told SCAN five years ago that they need to use less city funding; there's little evidence, he said that they have done so.
• General-fund funding for the city's human services department would be cut 7.6 percent. That would mean cutting the city's early learning and domestic violence/sexual assault prevention programs; eliminating computer training for seniors; reducing funding for Sound Mental Health; eliminating funding for a domestic-violence intervention program; and reducing support for crime prevention councils, landlord training, and crime prevention events.
• Seattle Public Utilities would also lose 4.2 percent of its funding.
Here's a summary of today's proposals:
• The Department of Neighborhoods would be cut 18.2 percent (or 12.7 percent once transfers to other departments are taking into account). The largest savings would come the elimination of six neighborhood service centers that don't take payments for city bills and traffic tickets; those centers, which are staffed by knowledgeable neighborhood district coordinators, provide information about available Seattle services and programs.
• DON would also see cuts to its food policy program (designed to create a progressive food policy for the city); historic preservation (the department would eliminate most funding to identify new historic properties); and assistance to immigrants and refugees (a portion of which would be maintained and transferred to the city's Office of Civil Rights). Additionally, funding for the Youth Commission, which holds community forums and advises the mayor and council on youth-related issues, which would be entirely eliminated. (Existing staff in the mayor's office would take over the work of youth commission staff.)
• The city's information technology department would be cut by 13.3 percent. In addition to cutting several positions and reducing tech support to city departments, DoIT would put off upgrading the Seattle Channel to HDTV for two years.
• The city would reduce funding for public-access television from around $625,000 a year to about $100,000, eliminating funding for Seattle Community Access Network and requiring companies to bid competitively on the contract.
"Public access television is really important, [but] it's become less important because of the ability to do video on a wide variety of platforms, including YouTube," DoIT director Bill Schrier told the committee. SCAN advocates turned out in force for a public hearing on the budget in Northgate last week.
Council members expressed concern about ending funding for SCAN. "It's not like YouTube is a new invention," council president Richard Conlin said. However, Schrier countered that the council told SCAN five years ago that they need to use less city funding; there's little evidence, he said that they have done so.
• General-fund funding for the city's human services department would be cut 7.6 percent. That would mean cutting the city's early learning and domestic violence/sexual assault prevention programs; eliminating computer training for seniors; reducing funding for Sound Mental Health; eliminating funding for a domestic-violence intervention program; and reducing support for crime prevention councils, landlord training, and crime prevention events.
• Seattle Public Utilities would also lose 4.2 percent of its funding.
Filed under
Share
Show Comments
