The Seattle Arts Commission has submitted its comments regarding the Office of Arts & Culture’s (OAC) 2014 proposed budget.
[More]I recently wrote about funding arts-related capital facility projects through the City’s arts office. Today, I’m writing about another arts-related budget issue: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, or LHPAC. When the Mayor proposed transferring the operations of LHPAC from the parks department to the arts office, some expressed concern it might stray from its long-time […]
[More]After years of pressing DPR to include Building 30’s rehabilitation in the Mayor’s budget, DPR will now advance rehabilitation from 2015 to next year as well as include $2m for stabilizing Building 18 rather than demolishing it.
[More]I believe our excessive war spending has contributed to our nation’s substantial debt, and does not contribute to meeting our growing needs at home.
For these reasons, I introduced Resolution 31306, calling on Congress and the President to redirect war spending to domestic priorities, and to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as can be done safely for our troops.
[More]This year the City’s economy was still deep in recession and as a result we had to reduce this year’s $900 million budget by $15 million before the year was over. In addition, we faced a $67 million budget shortfall for 2011. And just last week we received additional bad news: with the passage of State Initiative 1107 and the continued decline in property sales we had to take another $5.8 million dollar reduction from the Mayor’s proposed 2011-2 budget.
[More]The City faces over $50 million in budget cuts next year on top of mid-year 2010 cuts of about $12 million. In light of these constraints I believe we must re-examine our current construction budget to see what savings we can realize. Close to $100 million is required for the Mercer West transportation project, which may increase the project’s principal and debt costs. For this reason it is critical we evaluate the design of Mercer West to determine if any savings can be achieved.
[More]The Council faced difficult budget decisions this year. Because of significantly reduced revenues, $40 million in reductions from our $900 million 2010 budget were necessary. However, the Council did limit the cuts where possible and was even able to add funding for a select number of programs. We also added $5.2 million to the Rainy Day Fund, bringing the new total to $10.5 million. My focus was on mitigating the impact of these difficult economic times and helping those most in need.
[More]Today Mayor Greg Nickels presented his 2010 Proposed Budget to the City Council. One of the major elements accompanying his final budget is accompanying legislation to the Council requesting that we approve a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the State signing off on $787 million for the city’s obligations to fund projects related to the bored tunnel.
[More]With the new 2009-10 biennial budget the Council has woven a very broad tapestry of legislation. A good deal of the credit goes to the four councilmembers, including the leadership of Budget Chair Jean Godden and Council President Richard Conlin, who negotiated with the deputy mayor to bring forward a budget package.
[More]The City Council Budget Committee voted on November 16 to pass a budget for 2006. The Full Council is scheduled to vote November 28. All nine Councilmembers serve on the Budget Committee, so it is unlikely there will be any changes.
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