Editorial
City must cut spending, workers must expect less

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

Seattle needs to cut its spending. Its problem is not overwhelming, like California's, but it is both urgent and chronic. On the urgent side, the city lost a lawsuit about sidewalk costs, and the general fund has to repay millions to City Light. It is also opening a big downtown library and community centers that need to be staffed with employees.

On the chronic side, there is a limit on taxes. A soft economy and the Internet have reduced the revenue from the sales tax. The use of cellphones for long distance has cut into the utility tax. The property-tax levy, which for 19 out of 20 years was raised by 6 percent a year, is now limited to 1 percent. City government has to cut spending and city employees must expect less in their new labor contracts.

Budget Director Dwight Dively puts the shortfall at $10.5 million this year and about $20 million next, which is not so much on a budget of $660 million. But it's enough to require cooperation by Mayor Greg Nickels and the City Council's budget chairman, Richard McIver.

This is not a time for council members to rush and save favored programs. It's a time to take the heat. Council members will have to look at everything from parks and public health to such exotica as neighborhood matching funds and the Office of Sustainability and Environment. All have their constituencies, but not all are essential.

Another problem looms: All but one union contract will expire by the end of this year or has already expired. Members will be hungry for a raise, and for the city to absorb the relentless rise in medical costs. The reality is there will be layoffs of city employees, and the more they are paid the more will have to be let go. Realistically, city unions will have to settle for very little.

"We're all liberal Democrats who supported the unions," says Councilman Nick Licata, "but there is only so much water in the pipe."

There is one other way out, which is to put a tax increase on the ballot. The latest Tim Eyman initiative allows that and Licata suggests that it may be the thing to do. Mayor Nickels cringes. "Given the increase (in city spending) in the boom years, I think we still have to show we can tighten our belts," he says.

On that, we agree with the mayor. Seattle's economy is too weak to take a tax increase, and city spending still has too many extravagances from the boom years.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company