Redmond mayor: City budget ‘balanced and stable for the next six years’

Published 7:49 am Thursday, April 19, 2012

The City of Redmond’s budget, community outreach efforts and future were the focus of Mayor John Marchione’s State of the City address Wednesday afternoon at this month’s Greater Redmond Chamber of Commerce’s member luncheon.

Marchione said Redmond’s financial outlook remains healthy, telling the audience that the city is “balanced and stable for the next six years.”

The mayor said they are seeing some sales tax recovery from the down economy and more dollars are trickling in through construction projects, which dropped significantly when the recession hit. While things are looking up, Marchione acknowledged that progress will be slow. He said the amount of construction projects in Redmond is at about the same level as they were at in the mid 1990s and it would be around 2020 before they rise back up to the city’s construction peak from 2007.

Marchione said one of the ways Redmond has been able to maintain a balanced budget has been by using ongoing revenue for ongoing expenses.

“We are not using one-time savings to balance our budget,” he said, adding that those one-time savings typically go toward construction.

Marchione also touched on the city’s upcoming Budgeting by Priorities (BP) process for the 2013-14 biennial budget. He said this is the third time the city will use this process, which has been successful and calls for a lot of citizen involvement.

“The city doesn’t solve the problem by itself,” Marchione said about the importance of including citizens in the budgeting process and other aspects of city government.

Using Redmond’s six priorities — business vitality, clean and green environment, community building, infrastructure and growth, responsible government and safety — as a guide, Marchione also shared results from a city survey of citizens in 2011.

The survey is conducted every two years and Marchione said the city has improved in most categories and subcategories since the last survey in 2009 including community engagement, responsible government and safety.

With the latter however, Marchione said one area citizens thought the city could improve on is disaster preparedness. He said citizens feel they need to know more about what to do in the case of a natural disaster, so this is an area the city will focus on as far as community outreach.

While discussing Redmond’s future, Marchione talked about the downtown and Overlake neighborhoods, the city’s two urban centers.

He said in the downtown, the city is working on making the area more walkable, completing the 164th Avenue Northeast extension from Cleveland Street to Northeast 76th Street and converting Cleveland Street and Redmond Way to two-way streets.

“I was told we’re on pace to complete it by 2015,” Marchione said about converting the one-way streets.

He said in the urban centers, people want to see both residents and businesses and more choices for all aspects of their daily life, from working and living to dining out and other forms of entertainment.

Marchione said the urban centers were designated to absorb growth in the region and the city’s strategy resonates with citizens.

“They like the direction the city is going,” he said.