The City of Bellingham 2009 Budget, approved by the Bellingham City Council last December, is now available on-line and in print. A limited number of paper copies of the document are available for sale in the Finance Department.
The adopted budget serves as a financial guide and work plan for the coming year with a clear focus on achieving the City's mission of:
Supporting safe, satisfying and prosperous community life by providing the citizens of Bellingham with quality, cost-effective services that meet today’s needs and form a strong foundation for the future.
To achieve the presented objectives and core operations, the City's 2009 budget totals $216 million, with a General Fund budget of $72 million. The 2009 adopted budget reduces the City's overall number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees by 6.1 compared to the 2008 budget.
In Mayor Dan Pike's budget introduction letter, he describes the 2009 budget as making prudent investments in priority initiatives while maintaining essential government services and projected reserves without a property tax rate increase.
"This budget reflects a disciplined operating philosophy, infrastructure maintenance, services delivery, consideration for the City's long-range goals and a desire to strengthen the resiliency of our financial position, including maintaining reserve dollars on hand, while limiting the impact on taxpayers during difficult economic times," he said.
"Even within a constrained financial picture, the 2009 budget keeps us on course protecting Bellingham's quality of life and moving forward on previously launched high priority initiatives," Pike said. "It also presents a few new items that will help us better respond to neighborhood threats and disturbances, the needs of local businesses and those of entrepreneurs who wish to join or grow our local economy, including those producing green jobs."
"We have endeavored within the 2009 Budget to retain the quality service that the citizens of Bellingham expect and deserve. This is being done with the recognition that the costs of delivering these services are rising at a rate that is not sustainable given the current long-term forecasts for revenues."
Pike said the City's financial condition, though facing serious challenges, will be manageable in the near term. However, it is unclear when the local, state and national economies will pick up steam. "As such," he said, "we have looked beyond this budget and are maintaining a careful eye on possible scenarios that could face us in subsequent years. In particular, we will need to work together to address some longer-term fiscal stability and structural issues, a conversation that has already begun internally."
Posted: Mar 20, 2009
