Posted: February 26, 2009 08:43:38 PST
City of Bellingham officials announced Wednesday another $2.5 million in budget reductions has been initiated by Mayor Dan Pike, pending review and approval by the Bellingham City Council.
Pike said Wednesday that no layoffs are resulting from these proposed cuts, though about nine positions are affected by the reductions. He said most of the staff-related reductions are the result of people leaving and their positions not being filled. Pike said that he directed City departments to "freeze" spending on a list of items identified during the past several weeks. Pike will seek review and direction from Bellingham City Council on the proposed cuts in mid-March.
Among the proposed reductions are:
A complete list of these proposed budget reductions can be found on the City's website at www.cob.org If approved by City Council, these cuts, coupled with prior reductions, represent a total staff reduction of almost 29 FTEs citywide since last fall.
We continue to monitor revenue trends very closely, Pike said. Preliminary numbers show that February sales tax receipts - based on the normally busy December transactions period - fell by more than 14%. If the trend continues, other reductions beyond this list could be included when the package goes to Council next month.
Pike said parallel to keeping the City's budget in balance for 2009 is a strategic look at aligning City government with available resources over the longer term.
"We've scoured budgets City-wide, as promised, to avoid further layoffs, but there are no more cuts to make without impacting people's jobs as we go forward," he said. "While we continue to monitor 2009 expenses, we are working in earnest to re-orient our programs and services to align with fiscal reality in 2010 and beyond."
He said this effort will not be "an accounting exercise," but rather a re-inventing government effort that needs to identify millions of dollars in reduced operating costs in each of the coming years.
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Media Contact:
Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike
Chief Administrative Officer David Webster
778-8100 or mayorsoffice@cob.org
