2005 ML budget keeps status quo

Preliminary budget brings good and bad news, Gavinski says

MOSES LAKE — It's chip-counting time for the city, and for once, the outlook is not all that dim.

This year's general fund budget is $13,490,000, slightly down from last year's $13,570,000 budget. The city's total budget this year amounts to $54,550,000, up from last year's $52,712,000.

A study session will take place tonight at 6 p.m., with the council discussing the matter further during the city council meeting later on.

The study session will help city staff brief the council on the preliminary budget, as well as for the council members to provide feedback to city manager Joe Gavinski, financial director Ron Cone and the rest of the staff.

With the ghost of Initiative 864 vanquished for at least a year, Gavinski described this year's budget as one of good news and bad news.

The good news, he said, is that there would be no additional service or staff cuts and all programs remain in place as they had been budgeted last year.

The bad news is, there are no additional funds to restore any positions or programs that had been cut in past budgets.

Revenues are relatively flat in some areas with slight increases in others, Gavinski said. Expenditures have remained the same, hence the impression that this budget looks quite a bit like the one in 2004.

"It's maintaining the budgetary status quo," councilman Jon Lane said, praising the work of city staff in stopping what had been three years of increasingly tighter budgets.

Councilman Dick Deane agreed, saying he "respected" the work of city staff for tightening the city's belt and making the hard decisions during the past years.

"Because of that, we are not hitting the firewall that other towns are being confronted with in one large swoop," Deane said. "Spokane has faced some devastating cuts."

Two years ago, Gavinski told the Herald that "he did not think matters could get worse and they did." A year ago, the city manager repeated the statement. This year, a relieved Gavinski said "things did not get worse. I guess that means they got better.

"With the way things have gone in the last years, to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel is encouraging."

While Moses Lake is doing better than some similar-sized cities that are having a harder time balancing a budget, Gavinski quickly noted that there are some cities that are still doing much better, too. Tukwila, for example, a city with a larger sales tax base, is a city that has significantly larger revenues to deal with the problems that come with budgetary issues.

The opening of Home Depot raises the question of as to how much the city's sales and property tax revenue will increase thanks to the arrival of the retailer.

Gavinski said he believed the city would net revenue because of Home Depot opening, despite the fact that it may take some business away from other retailers. However, a store like Home Depot will sell to people who until now had to leave town to do their home improvement shopping, as well as to people who will come from out of town to shop at Home Depot, and in the process, going to other places in the city, such as restaurants.

It will not be until December when the city finds how much the opening month of Home Depot affects the city's sales tax revenue.