Pierce County unanimously approves $53M spending increase for 2025 budget. Here's why
The Pierce County Council unanimously approved a $53 million supplemental budget for 2025 on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. The Pierce County County-City building as seen on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Tacoma, Wash.
A unanimous Pierce County Council has approved a supplemental budget proposal from the current Executive that would increase spending by about $53 million in 2025.
Executive Bruce Dammeier, a Republican, proposed numerous changes to the mid-biennium supplemental budget earlier this month, including more funding for staffing and equipment for the Sheriff's Department, capital projects, affordable housing and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
According to county documents, most of the costs will be fully or partially offset by reallocations or savings in the existing budget. Other costs will be covered by fee revenue, tax revenues or contributions from other governmental jurisdictions.
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At Tuesday night's meeting council members said they thought the supplemental budget was balanced and thanked department staff for working hard to make it a reality.
Republican council member Dave Morell took time to pay respect to Dammeier and said although it can be challenging having seven council members with diverse ideas, 'I think this council came together with a sensible budget.'
Morell noted that the bulk of the budget increases reflect the transfer of funds, including about $15 million to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and about $4.5 million in general fund increases.
'We have basically three sources of income: property taxes, sales tax and fees, and those kind of make up the bulk of the income that the county has. And due to inflation, labor costs, cost of material, everything has gone up at home and the government. So before us in the 2026-2027 budget, it gets more challenging,' he said. 'We'll have to really take a look at the budget, scrub things that we've kind of taken for granted, but I think this is a fiscally sound supplemental budget that we're putting forward. I think it leaves a strong fund balance, which we're going to need.'
In September Dammeier vetoed a supplemental budget approved by the County Council that would have allocated millions in funding towards homeless services and housing projects, as previously reported by The News Tribune. Last year Dammeier signed a $3.2 billion county budget for 2024-2025.
'Many of the proposed increases in the Executive's proposal have merit, but some require further thought and analysis and are better suited for consideration next year,' Council Chair and Democrat Ryan Mello, who will take over as the newly-elected Executive next year, said in a press release this week. 'With leadership transitions occurring in several elected offices, including the Sheriff's Department, new budget priorities will likely emerge in 2025.'
Where will the money go?
Among the changes Dammeier proposed is increasing general-fund expenditures by about $4.5 million, increasing other fund expenditures by about $48.5 million in addition to creating about 20 full-time staff positions overall.
The general fund supports services like the Sheriff's Department, corrections, courts, County Council and the Executive's Office, among others. Other expenditures, like special revenue funds, capital projects funds, enterprise funds, internal services funds and custodial funds, address affordable housing, health services, road funds, drug enforcement and investigations, housing and homelessness, human services, utilities and parks.
Under the general fund, Dammeier proposed closing three vacant corrections deputy positions due to a lower average daily jail population and use that funding to support the addition of three positions in the Pre-Trial Services Department, according to a summary of the budget changes prepared Oct. 25.
He also proposed to restore six deputy sheriff positions initially reduced in the 2024-2025 budget, as well as allocate $3.8 million for fleet upgrades and $593,680 to replace seven marked and unmarked Sheriff's Department vehicles due to 'an increase in totaled vehicles [that] has resulted in a shortage.'
'Costs are partially offset by the reallocation of $4,506,960 in budget savings,' the report said.
Other expenditure changes in the supplemental budget include allocating $1.2 million to South Sound 911, about $3 million the clerk of the Superior Court, up to $1 million to the South Sound Housing Affordability Partners to support affordable housing projects, $245,000 for multiple community-focused programs to support youth activities and youth violence prevention and $500,000 to provide behavior health support to veterans.
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