2020 PT budget: little new spending

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If affordable housing, crumbling streets and the needs of Port Townsend’s aging population are topmost on city residents’ minds, they do not yet dominate the city’s spending plan for next year.

That’s because most of the $35 million in spending planned for the 2020 budget covers existing staff, ongoing services, operating costs, plus commitments already made to programs underway. That doesn’t leave much for other items on citizen wishlists.

The budget was approved by the Port Townsend City Council at the regular Dec. 2 meeting.

City Manager John Mauro said he wishes more citizens had taken part in the 2020 budget process and he hopes that next year they will dig in and learn more about the ability of the city to pivot toward new priorities.

The budget is the place where the city’s priorities are really set, he said.

The big picture of the budget, he said, is that there is not much room for new spending in 2020. The city council adopted conservative estimates about future revenues, to hedge against economic slowdown.

The other obstacle to quick changes in city spending is that some city tax revenues can only be spent in specific ways. For example, he said, the visitor center plaza money could only have been spent on that or a similar type of project.

“I understand there is stress in the community about what we can pay for,” he said. “We can’t repave every street, we need to decide where we can get the biggest bang for our buck.”

That said, $100,000 has been allocated in the 2020 budget for street improvements. Public Works staff are assessing which streets are most in need of repair to create a priority list for 2020, Finance & Administrative Services Director Nora Mitchell said.

Road work is funded through the city utility tax and a state gas tax.

From the affordable housing fund, which gets its revenue from the city’s property tax, the city has allocated $74,658 of the estimated $80,008 in 2020 revenue.

The majority of this will go to the debt service payment for the Homeward Bound Cherry Street apartments project.

The rest, Mitchell said, can be used for whatever the City Council decides, so long as it is related to affordable housing. In years past, it has been used to waive permit fees for developments that address the affordable housing shortage.

Where Mauro and Mitchell see room for new allocations is in 2021 when the city could begin to benefit from Port Townsend’s annexation into East Jefferson Fire District.

As a result of the February vote, city residents will be taxed for fire and EMT service by East Jefferson Fire District.

City officials hope residents will not resist a plan by which the city can keep collecting the same amount of property tax to fund other priorities.

In total, that could yield about $900,000 but at the time of the annexation vote, the city agreed not to take the old fire levy in the first year of the annexation (2020) and to collect only one third additionally per year until 2023. That means in 2021 the city, could raise an additional $300,000 for things like  street maintenance, parks and recreation, affordable housing initiatives or utility tax relief.

“That creates some opportunity to start funding different priorities,” Mitchell said. “But we need help from the community to decide what those are.”

Mitchell said the city manager is responsible for coming to city council with priorities and proposals for that money, hopefully by June 2020. From there a series of public hearings would be held to weigh public reaction to continuation of the former fire-related levy and to weigh public input on how that money could be spent.

Mauro said most things are on the table and he hopes to have a large community conversation about spending.