Spokane City Council identifies priorities ahead of rolling out proposed budget

(The Center Square) – The Spokane City Council laid out its strategic budget priorities on Thursday for the next two years as it attempts to make its way out of a mounting structural deficit.

Next year marks the start of Spokane's new biennial budget cycle, a format geared toward long-term planning and monitoring of resources over two years rather than one. Council Budget Director Katherine Fairborn walked officials through the process on Thursday.

She said the council’s budget is due next month before rolling out 2025’s projected revenues in October. Then, Mayor Lisa Brown will present her proposed budget in November before making further adjustments for the final budget’s adoption in December.

“In our current deficit situation, with very strong economic headwinds forecasted for 2025 and potentially 2026, the need for clear priorities is crucial,” Fairborn told the council.

Much of Thursday’s conversation revolved around public safety. Most of the council cited a need for neighborhood resources officers and more patrols. Other priorities included promoting a regional approach to homelessness, identifying investments, such as AI, that increase efficiencies, and traffic calming measures to mitigate pedestrian deaths.

Councilmember Michael Cathcart thinks that public safety should be the top priority. However, he’s skeptical, given a recent measure that incentivized around 20 officers to retire despite understaffing and Brown eyeing more than $9 million in cuts to the Spokane Police Department.

The other council members noted a desire to remove SPD’s reliance on the Traffic Calming Fund for traffic enforcement efforts. Cathcart said doing so could take an additional $1 million or so from SPD, meaning if Brown pushed for the other cuts, too, it would total almost $11 million.

“This council can choose to do that if we want,” he said. “I don’t think the public is going to reward a council that makes that decision, no matter how strongly they feel about traffic calming.”

He agreed that the Traffic Calming Fund is not the right place but that removing it as an option without many others puts the department in an even tougher spot. Besides shifting that funding model, most of the council agreed on the other priorities.

Councilmember Paul Dillon also noted the need to strengthen the Fire Department, Municipal Court , and Office of the Police Ombudsman, among other priorities the council also pointed out. Fairborn said she’d create a survey for the council to rank their priorities in the coming weeks.

“Other cities really [invest] in their young people,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson said before closing. “I heard a year ago, over 50% of the people that work at City Hall are eligible for retirement today … and I don’t think we have a very deep bench.”