Nickels, City Council propose spending cuts, higher parking fees to meet budget shortfall

To meet a $19 million budget shortfall between now and 2010, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the City Council propose raising parking rates and spending less than expected on building apartments for homeless people and preventing youth violence.

The cuts, prompted by worsening economic conditions, represent changes to the budget proposal the mayor presented to the City Council in September. That proposal was based on August financial data, and revenue from the sales tax and business-and-occupation tax have since fallen.

The mayor and City Council have been working for the past two weeks on a plan to reduce spending, released today. A final council vote on the budget is scheduled for later this month.

"We were looking for things that would not impact direct services" such as police, fire and parks, said Council President Richard Conlin. "We were also looking for ones that would be relatively sustainable versus things that would have a long-term impact like tapping the rainy-day fund."

To increase revenue, the mayor and council propose raising street-parking rates higher than the mayor previously recommended. In September Nickels wanted to raise the current $1.50 hourly rate by 50 cents in many parts of the city. He is now recommending raising the rate by 75 cents per hour in those areas, and by $1 per hour in downtown Seattle.

Cuts to the mayor's proposed budget would total $26 million. Among them:

• Reduce the mayor's proposed youth-violence prevention initiative by $1.3 million. With the cut, the program would cost $7.7 million.

• Reduce proposed new funds for building housing units for homeless people by $500,000. That would leave $1.6 million in new money to be spent on the housing.

• Shrink the public-safety program to install cameras in parks by $300,000. Cameras would be installed in fewer parks than planned.

• Eliminate several transportation projects, including the Renton Avenue South roundabout and participation in the county's South Park Bridge environmental study.

• Eliminate a hiring-incentive program that pays for uniforms for new recruits in the Seattle Police Department.

• Replace fire engines and city vehicles less frequently.

• Eliminate a proposal to hire an additional tree-maintenance crew.

• Spend $1.3 million less than planned to beautify the area of Seattle Center that the Fun Forest will vacate when it closes at the end of 2009.

• Stop prosecuting the lowest misdemeanor level of driving with a suspended license.

"Some things will probably cause people heartburn and we will have things to work out," said Councilmember Jean Godden, budget chairwoman. "This is a suggested list. It is not set in stone yet."

Today's proposal added two or three layoffs to the previously proposed cuts of 10 to 12. Many workers whose jobs were listed for elimination have already found jobs in other city departments, according to Director of Finance Dwight Dively.

In addition to those job cuts, the council is considering downsizing the Office of Economic Development.

"We haven't seen as many results as we would like to," said Conlin, although he was pleased with the office's work to attract movie projects.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com