Olympia has finalized its 2022 budget. Here’s what it contains
Olympia City Council approved City Manager Jay Burney’s 2022 operating budget at its Nov. 23 meeting. The final vote approving the budget in ordinance form will take place at the council’s next meeting on Dec. 7.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing cities across the country to make cuts to prioritize public health and safety, the city of Olympia is pushing hard to regain lost time and money. The city adjusts its budget throughout the year, but as it stands now, things are looking more hopeful than they were a year ago.
The 2022 preliminary operating budget totals $177.7 million, an increase of $10.1 million or 6.0% from the 2021 adopted budget. The General Fund totals $94.3 million, which is $6.2 million or a 7.0% increase from last year’s fund.
Each year, the preliminary operating budget estimates future revenue based on the previous year’s revenue. Last year’s preliminary operating budget originally proposed $167.7 million in spending and $87.9 million in the General Fund. This year’s budget includes a lot of new additions, but when it comes to having a well-balanced budget, hard decisions had to be made in some departments.
The General Fund covers the city’s core functions, including transportation, police, fire and parks. It typically goes up yearly due to certain costs outside the city’s control going up every year, such as guaranteed employee benefits, salary increases and insurance costs.
In a letter included with the operating budget, Burney said this year’s General Fund includes roughly $1.8 million in new programs or enhancements to existing programs. Funds were reallocated in some departments to better balance needs and wants of Olympians totaling $1.3 million, which includes nearly $717,000 in expenditure reductions from the Olympia Police Department.
The reductions in the police department mostly center around leaving a handful of full-time positions unfilled for 2022.
The General Fund includes roughly $580,000 of increased revenue from an increase in the Municipal Utility Tax rate of 1% that will go toward public amenities and needs.
“Certainly, the decision to increase the MUT rate was difficult,” Burney said. “However, we value the voices of our community and increases in resources toward communication and crisis response, which added over $700k in on-going costs, was a priority of our residents.”
Burney included in the budget that current year estimates forecast revenues exceeding the budget by roughly $3.1 million in the General Fund, a positive for the city. Expenses for 2021 are also expected to come in below budgeted amounts by around $800,000, another positive that allows the city to continue services it is currently providing and have extra cushion for public health and safety needs.
Burney said the focus of the finance committee and an executive team working on the budget has shifted to making the yearly budget more sustainable. This involves looking at ongoing city services and evaluating them based on the progress they’ve made for the city or how little they’re needed in the future. This work will truly begin in 2022, but changes have been made and goals have been set in several areas of interest to the general public.
Housing and homelessness
Burney said the city spends around $2.6 million on its operational response to housing and homelessness, with money going toward both the city’s continuing emergency response as well as the construction of long-term supportive housing through the Home Fund.
The Home Fund allocates $1 million per year toward long-term projects, he said.
Since 2019 the funding for the Homeless Response program has come from an interfund loan agreed upon with the city council. That loan only runs through 2021, so some of the contracts for homeless response staff, mitigation operations and other resources will be covered by the General Fund in 2022.
The Homeless Response Coordinator position used to be grant funded through a partnership with Evergreen Christian Community, but that grant has come to a close, Burney said. Money was added to the budget to fund this position full time. Scattered Site program employees are continuing to be funded through 2020 General Fund carryover.
The mitigation site move to Quince Street is also covered in the budget with a cost of about $500,000 for utility work and site improvements including security increases. The move and use of the mitigation site is funded through a contract with Catholic Community Services, which will expire at the end of 2022. Burney said alternatives will have to be sought to continue programs and the use of the mitigation site come 2023.
Burney said $2 million of American Rescue Plan Act money was set aside to address homelessness on a regional level with other cities in Thurston County. That money is going to be directed mostly toward creating safe spaces for RV camping. The city is continuing to partner with Lacey and Tumwater and county departments to gain support in creating a county-wide Home Fund in the form of a countywide tax to support low-income housing.
“We will need more resources from the state, county and federal Government to sustain this level of response to this crisis long term,” Burney said.
Public safety and police
Olympia’s 2022 budget allocates about $42.1 million to public safety, which is 23.7% of the budget.
Though cuts were made in the way of position vacancies, $500,000 was added to the budget to expand the department’s Crisis Response Unit to working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and add five full-time employees to the program. The Downtown Ambassadors and Clean Team programs have also been expanded into the evening hours, Burney said.
The city is also allocating $1.2 million of American Rescue Plan Act money to implement body cams at OPD, with the addition of a new police lieutenant to oversee that program.
The Olympia Fire Department is also continuing to explore creating a new program called OFD CARES. The program focuses on providing emergency room diversion and support for Olympians who are experiencing mental and behavioral health issues, according to the budget.
Social justice and equity
The 2021 budget allocated $270,000 to hire an equity and inclusion manager and compensate those who work on the city’s Social Justice & Equity Advisory Commission.
The Social Justice and Equity Commission was approved earlier this fall and money has been added to the 2022 budget to support its move forward as well as those who will serve on it.
Burney said the city is also hiring an equity consultant to conduct an equity audit of the entire organization to help push this work forward even quicker.
Burney said there are a lot of new things in the 2022 budget than previous years and that it does create some issues around the goal of creating a sustainable budget, but it’s not anything the city can’t tackle.
“They’re really all important priorities that are of high community need that we need to move forward on,” he said. “So we have some work to do to make sure our budget remains sustainable for years to come.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 5:15 AM.
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