Council Meeting tonight to close budget gap

The City Council meeting to discuss options to re-balance the General Fund will take place on Monday, December 6

After restoring some programs slated for cuts in the City’s original proposed budget, the Council will work to close a budget gap of about $237,000 in 2011 and $312,000 in 2012.

Tonight, the Council will deliberate on two options for closing the budget gap.

The first option would raise most of the necessary funds by instituting a basic life support (BLS) ambulance transport fee for emergency non-life threatening transport to hospitals. Private ambulance companies ordinarily take these patients and bill them or their insurance companies.

The second option would fill about $103,000 of the General Fund budget gap by increasing the City’s portion of property taxes by 1%, (the option amount that the city can to raise taxes each year) with the balance coming from additional service cuts.

The Council had originally planned the meeting to discuss options to re-balance the General Fund for November 22, but had to cancel it due to inclement weather. Council adoption of the final 2011-2012 budget is scheduled for December 13.

Citizens are invited to attend the final public budget meeting on December 6 to share their opinions and insight on the City’s proposed budget. The public budget meeting will take place in the Council Chambers in City Hall located at 9611 SE 36th Street. Mercer Islanders can also comment on the budget by sending an email to customerservice@mercergov.org.