Human services mark city budget

Human services, pedestrian safety and libraries won big in Seattle's largest budget ever, which was tentatively approved Friday by the City Council.

To pay for those priorities, the council cut Mayor Greg Nickels' proposal to build a 311 customer-service phone system that would have cost $8.9 million.

"We chose to spend wisely," said budget committee Chairman Richard McIver, who said human services were more important than customer service. "I would rather put a roof over your head than have 311."

Thanks to surpluses of recent years, strong revenue growth from the sales tax and the business-and-occupation tax, the council was working with an embarrassment of riches. The $926 million proposed general fund, the discretionary part of the budget that pays for most city operations, is up 10 percent from last year.

The council put some of the money into a rainy-day reserve fund, adding $1.5 million to the $4.7 million the mayor already proposed setting aside.

Dwight Dively, the city's budget director, said Nickels "is obviously disappointed 311 isn't being pursued aggressively," but that most of what the mayor proposed made it through the council.

The 2008 budget is expected to win final council approval Nov. 19.

Here are some of what the council added to the mayor's proposal, issued in September:

• $3.5 million for pedestrian safety, including $1.5 million to build about 20 blocks of new sidewalks; $650,000 to improve Third Avenue downtown for pedestrians; $500,000 to pilot technologies such as countdown signals, flashing lights in crosswalks and pedestrian refuge islands.

• $5.5 million for human services, including $1 million for adult dental clinics; $1.2 million to build or preserve low-income housing; $500,000 for longer hours at community centers; $400,000 for food-delivery programs; and $100,000 for the Cascade People's Center, a community center in South Lake Union.

• $4.5 million for parks and neighborhood facilities, including $3 million to help nonprofits acquire the University Heights and Phinney Ridge school buildings.

• $2 million to add to the library collection.

• $200,000 to build a visitor welcome bureau near Westlake Center.

The council gave preliminary approval to Nickels' proposal for a new square-footage tax for businesses. The new tax would offset a $22 million revenue loss the city would have faced next year after the Legislature changed how business-and-occupation taxes are collected.

The state change will affect businesses that bill for services outside the city, such as large law and accounting firms. The city said the proposed square-footage tax would not force business owners to pay more in new taxes than they did under the previous business-and-occupation tax.

The council also approved the mayor's changes to the business-and-occupation tax, which now applies to businesses that make more than $50,000. Next year, the tax would apply to businesses that make more than $80,000 a year.

The council said Nickels did not make the case for a 311 customer-service phone system that would have cost $8.9 million to set up and $4 million in annual operating costs. Nickels said residents should have to dial only one number to reach the city instead of navigating pages of numbers in the phone book.

The council reduced the mayor's proposal to $500,000, which would pay to study whether better customer service is needed.

The mayor's idea to put emergency medics on motorcycles was also cut by the council, which directed $830,000 toward other equipment firefighters wanted, such as more medic trucks.

Downtown parks will get six park rangers to monitor illegal activity, an idea the mayor proposed and the council supported. Nickels floated the idea last year, but the council chose instead to hire more police officers. The 2008 budget also includes money to fund the mayor's and council's plan to add 20 more police officers.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com