PORT TOWNSEND — The city of Port Townsend’s 2011 budget is expected to receive final unanimous approval tonight from the seven-member City Council.
The Port Townsend City Council will consider the budget at 6:30 p.m. in its chambers at 540 Water St.
And while there’s nothing particularly unexpected about the $29 million the city plans to spend next year, there also haven’t been any urgent cries about dire shortfalls and draconian cuts that many other local governments have been facing.
Instead, the budget picture is one of belt-tightening caution combined with hopeful investment.
Cost-of-living increases for employees will be zero for the second year in a row. About one and a half positions have been eliminated.
Expenditures from the general fund, the public face of city operations, will be $6.8 million, slightly less than it was six years ago.
Police take up 39 percent of the general fund budget, and another 35 percent pays to keep city administrative departments and the City Council running.
The general fund is the largest part of the $20 million operating funds category, which also includes things like streets, fire, emergency medical services and stormwater management — the things that keep a city running on a day-to-day basis.
Water and sewer are the second most expensive, at $5.5 million.
A six-year overview shows the blips and jerks reflecting city policy and circumstance changes over time.
When the city faced the cutoff in ferry service in 2007, it decided to quit budgeting capital improvements on a year-to-year basis and go into a three-year planning mode.
Council members also decided the city needed to be more aggressive in its approach to economic strategies to safeguard and expand its base, Mayor Michelle Sandoval said.
Out of that came plans to collaborate with Fort Worden State Park, Goddard College and Peninsula College to offer a four-year degree program, which could begin next year.
But most important was a committed investment in infrastructure improvements intended to buoy the tourist trade that is the city’s foundation industry, support existing business and encourage new business.
The capital improvement budget jumped from below $3 million for 2006, 2007 and 2008 to more than $8 million in 2010, $16 million in 2010 and nearly $6 million for next year.
Much of that money reflects much smaller city spending, with the bulk of the infrastructure improvement money coming from state and federal sources, said City Manager David Timmons, who likes to cite an impressive $1-to-$7 ratio of local funds to other government sources the city has been able to leverage.
One result was the two new, often-controversial traffic roundabouts on the city’s Sims Way gateway.
Waiting in the wings for next year and beyond are downtown sidewalk improvements and completion of Howard Street infrastructure, which will double the city’s commercial frontage.
City residents have not been reticent in their complaints about rising taxes, said Timmons, “but they were designed to pay for this investment.”
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Contact her at 360-385-4645 or juliemccormick10@gmail.com.
