Spokane's structural deficit reduced to $10.9M; no further cuts to public safety

(The Center Square) – Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown announced Thursday that the city would not make any further cuts to public safety after floating the idea of cutting police funding by more than $9 million in July.

Brown clarified her intentions during a Thursday budget meeting with the city council, several other Spokane officials and the department heads. The mayor said the city’s $25 million structural deficit now sits at only $10.9 million, a significant difference since taking office .

However, that fails to mention the more than $20 million in depleted reserves that Brown noted back in April. Chief Financial Officer Matt Boston also pointed out during a July budget meeting that, while the city had only reduced the deficit to $14 million at the time, it would increase to $19 million again by the end of 2026; he did not provide an update or address this again during Thursday's meeting.

“Last month, we talked about a projection of $14 million; we’re now at $10.9 [million],” Brown told the officials. “This is an iterative process, with a lot of different moving parts, but clearly, we’re moving in the right direction.”

Brown and Boston reviewed potential cuts during the prior meeting after asking each department to participate in a hypothetical 10% budget reduction. If the city were to proceed, Brown said it would close the deficit but also result in nearly $16 million in cuts to the public safety departments, including $9.38 million from police and $4.75 million from fire.

Administration officials made clear on Thursday that this is not their intention moving forward. Instead, there will be no further cuts to the public safety departments following a few cost-saving measures already in place, such as voluntary retirement incentives and others.

Brown didn’t rule out the possibility of significant personnel layoffs during the meeting, but she did note that her administration is in talks with bargaining units to avoid this. She said the city hopes to know which positions will be affected by next week, but that timeline is tentative.

Boston said the savings that took the deficit from roughly $14 million to $10.9 million arose from non-public safety department cuts, voluntary retirement incentives and a range of other measures. The cuts/reductions that the city did make to police and fire resulted in savings of roughly $3.2 million.

The overall savings do not include revenue from Brown’s proposed Community Safety Sales Tax, which could generate $7.7 million annually, with 15% going to the county . During the meeting, Brown and Council President Betsy Wilkerson briefed the officials on another related proposal: a Community Safety Fund for the resulting revenue and a 10-year sunset provision.

“That way, the public can see that those expenditures are going to this fund, and whatever goes out of that fund is going to community safety purposes,” Brown said. “That provides some accountability going forward.”

If voters approve the tax in November, the revenue will go toward what Communications Director Erin Hut told The Center Square are “new investments”; meanwhile, the sunset provision ensures the city only levies the tax as needed.

However, many of the uses included in the city’s news release were previously suspended because of the deficit and funded by the general fund. Still, Hut said, “The whole ask of the sales tax has always been new investments.”

“These are revenue enhancements,” Hut told The Center Square. “This isn’t supplementing current costs.”

During the meeting, It was unclear what additional cuts the city would make to close the remaining $10.9 million deficit. The Brown administration is expected to release its preliminary budget on Oct. 1, with several other budget meetings and adjustments in the following months.