SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane City Council is weighing in on Mayor Lisa Brown's accusations of past administrations leaving Spokane in a $50 million budget deficit. City Council President Betsy Wilkerson said it came down to information, a lack of it at times and misinformation at others.
When it comes to making a decision as a council member, Wilkerson said accurate information is vital. Despite not having a full understanding of the increasing inflation rates, council still had to make financial decisions. Over the years, some of those decisions led to a compounding deficit in the city's budget.
"Over the last eight years, we've kept everything under 2.9%. Well, that was good. Until COVID hit," Wilkerson said.
During the pandemic, the nation's inflation rates skyrocketed to above 8% at times, but the city council continued making decisions based on the 2.9% number. Wilkerson said the council should have been more diligent about forecasting accurate inflation rates and service costs. She noted council members are not financial experts though and made the best decision with the information provided.
Between the rising inflation and other city crises, Wilkerson said the city put band-aids on issues. Those temporary fixes ultimately led the city to their current budget issues.
"I think some days, our hair is on fire, and we'll just have to put it out and come back to the table," Wilkerson said.
Now, the city needs to dig out of the $50 million hole they are in. On a surface level, the council has several options to cut costs. Those include furloughs for city employees, not awarding cost of living adjustments to city workers, re-negotiating contracts, not hiring open positions and finding new suppliers.
The other option is to put a levy to vote, asking the community to give the city more funding to offset the deficit. At this point, the council has not made any decisions. They are planning on discussing the options above in the next few weeks.
Once the city is back on track, Wilkerson said the council will focus on having accurate projections on inflation and costs of services in order to make fully informed financial decisions from this point forward.
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