2012
From the Mayor's Introduction to the 2011 Budget:
October 14, 2011
Dear Honorable City Council Members and Citizens of Enumclaw:
I present to you for consideration a balanced preliminary budget for 2012. The budget attempts to maintain basic services in a new economic reality while maintaining services such as parks and senior center which are an important part of the city’s social fabric and lend to its livability. For the past several years, starting with the 2010 budget, city government has noticeably contracted. Falling revenues and rising costs have forced reductions across the entire organization.
This year, like last, a balanced budget was achieved through additional cuts to services, staff reductions, and through staff’s on-going effort to realize operation efficiencies. Hope for a brighter state and regional economic forecast was dashed with the release of the state’s September state economic forecast which predicts several more years of economic turmoil and high unemployment. Consequently, the revenue and other forecasts used in the budget are conservative in their assumptions. Locally, the impact of the recession is evident - unemployment, utility payment delinquencies, foreclosed businesses and homes, and a marketed drop in property values,
Our department directors and employees have worked hard during these difficult times to find solutions to our budget challenges and to continue to provide service. Existing staff has assumed the workloads of those who have left the organization, sacrificed training, pay, and have done an excellent job on being frugal with supplies. They have also been successful in securing grants which will pay for Garrett Street improvements, electrical and HVAC upgrades to city buildings, and re-roofing Pete’s Pool House building.
It is through these efforts (grants, lay-offs, under expenditures, service cuts, wage freeze, etc.) over the past two budget cycles that city employees have positively affected expenditures by over $1 million dollars. I could not be prouder of them all.
I would also like to thank all of the volunteers who sit on our many boards and commissions for giving of their free time to assist the city with its many responsibilities.
The submission by the Mayor of the preliminary budget marks the beginning point of the annual budget process. I look forward to working over the next several months with the council as we discuss and decide the many considerations which must go into crafting a final budget document. I also look forward to another year of serving the great citizens of Enumclaw.
Respectfully,
Mayor Liz Reynolds
October 14, 2011
Dear Honorable City Council Members and Citizens of Enumclaw:
I present to you for consideration a balanced preliminary budget for 2012. The budget attempts to maintain basic services in a new economic reality while maintaining services such as parks and senior center which are an important part of the city’s social fabric and lend to its livability. For the past several years, starting with the 2010 budget, city government has noticeably contracted. Falling revenues and rising costs have forced reductions across the entire organization.
This year, like last, a balanced budget was achieved through additional cuts to services, staff reductions, and through staff’s on-going effort to realize operation efficiencies. Hope for a brighter state and regional economic forecast was dashed with the release of the state’s September state economic forecast which predicts several more years of economic turmoil and high unemployment. Consequently, the revenue and other forecasts used in the budget are conservative in their assumptions. Locally, the impact of the recession is evident - unemployment, utility payment delinquencies, foreclosed businesses and homes, and a marketed drop in property values,
Our department directors and employees have worked hard during these difficult times to find solutions to our budget challenges and to continue to provide service. Existing staff has assumed the workloads of those who have left the organization, sacrificed training, pay, and have done an excellent job on being frugal with supplies. They have also been successful in securing grants which will pay for Garrett Street improvements, electrical and HVAC upgrades to city buildings, and re-roofing Pete’s Pool House building.
It is through these efforts (grants, lay-offs, under expenditures, service cuts, wage freeze, etc.) over the past two budget cycles that city employees have positively affected expenditures by over $1 million dollars. I could not be prouder of them all.
I would also like to thank all of the volunteers who sit on our many boards and commissions for giving of their free time to assist the city with its many responsibilities.
The submission by the Mayor of the preliminary budget marks the beginning point of the annual budget process. I look forward to working over the next several months with the council as we discuss and decide the many considerations which must go into crafting a final budget document. I also look forward to another year of serving the great citizens of Enumclaw.
Respectfully,
Mayor Liz Reynolds