{"id":2356702,"date":"2024-10-18T13:21:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-spent-43k-on-campaign-for-tax-hike-might-balance-deficit-with-reserves-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-10-18T13:23:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T17:23:39","slug":"spokane-spent-43k-on-campaign-for-tax-hike-might-balance-deficit-with-reserves-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-spent-43k-on-campaign-for-tax-hike-might-balance-deficit-with-reserves-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Spokane spent $43K on campaign for tax hike; might balance deficit with reserves &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspokane-spent-43k-on-campaign-for-tax-hike-might-balance-deficit-with-reserves-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2356702&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article \u2062discusses Spokane&#8217;s allocation of\u2064 nearly $100,000 from its general fund towards an informational campaign supporting a proposed tax\u200b increase, despite facing a significant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-mayor-stumps-for-proposed-40-million-annual-tax-in-state-of-the-city\/\" title=\"Spokane Mayor advocates for  million annual tax proposal in State of the City address\">general fund deficit<\/a> of around $25 million. Councilmember Michael Cathcart expressed concerns over the city&#8217;s approach, suggesting it was a tactic to evade scrutiny from the city council. While this spending \u2064is legal, Cathcart \u2062believes it undermines transparency. The article also highlights the broader context of Spokane&#8217;s financial struggles, including a\u2062 significant depletion \u2062of reserves and the mayor\u2019s intention to balance the budget while considering new\u2064 tax proposals. Mayor Lisa Brown&#8217;s future \u2062budget proposal aims to address \u200cthe deficit, \u2064although achieving this may \u200btake longer than expected. \u2062Despite the contentious\u200b tax campaign costs, the city reportedly spent only $43,000 while keeping the remaining funds available. The city&#8217;s compliance with state law requires it \u200dto maintain a \u200dbalanced budget,\u2063 which it plans to do\u2064 moving forward.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Spokane spent $43K on campaign for tax hike; might balance deficit with reserves<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1839284\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>(The Center Square)&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Records show Spokane put nearly $100,000 from the city&rsquo;s general fund toward &ldquo;information mailers&rdquo; for the mayor&rsquo;s proposed tax increase while grappling with a $25 million general fund deficit.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>According to a September 2024 Intrafund Budget Transfers sheet, Spokane transferred $99,798 between three departments&rsquo; general fund budgets for the mailers. Councilmember Michael Cathcart said $50,000 is the threshold for asking for the council&rsquo;s approval, but since the sum was split, it almost snuck by.<\/p>\n<p>Informational campaigns are legal and standard practice with tax proposals like this, but Cathcart is concerned with how Spokane went about it. He said the city essentially subverted a vote from the city council by splitting it between multiple expenses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Clearly, the steps they took were to avoid any sort of public or council scrutiny,&rdquo; Cathcart told The Center Square. &ldquo;I had frustrations with transparency with the previous administration, don&rsquo;t get me wrong, but here it just feels like we&rsquo;ve taken it to another level.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Cathcart thinks it would have passed if the council voted on it, likely five to two, with him and Councilmember Jonathan Bingle dissenting. His issue is the timing and relation to the deficit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The expense comes as Spokane grapples with a general fund deficit of roughly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_7d0b8cf0-0752-11ef-8fc5-33e7f6b69812.html#:~:text=The%20Budget%20Deficit,Brown%20said%20Tuesday.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>$25 million<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;and around&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_7d0b8cf0-0752-11ef-8fc5-33e7f6b69812.html#:~:text=Since%202019%2C%20Spokane%27s%20reserves%20have%20sunk%20from%20%2428.3%20million%20to%20%247.6%20million%2C%20while%20the%20general%20fund%20deficit%20grew%20to%20%2425%20million.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$21 million<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;in depleted reserves. Closing the deficit is among Mayor Lisa Brown&rsquo;s top priorities, and projections indicate it&rsquo;s now at&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_f4e113d2-8806-11ef-aafc-bfa3bfcff4d0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$7.9 million<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;for 2025.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The mayor will release her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harris-proposes-28-corporate-tax-rate-bringing-her-in-line-with-biden-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Harris proposes 28% corporate tax rate, bringing her in line with Biden - Washington Examiner\">official budget proposal<\/a> next month, which is anticipated to balance the remaining deficit but might take longer than initially thought.<\/p>\n<p>Brown previously told voters they may have to pass a&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_6dd45b2c-fb77-11ee-89d7-a76ce9669f22.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$40 million<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-is-chicago-mayor-elect-brandon-johnson-inheriting-from-lori-lightfoot\/\" title=\"What is Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson inheriting from Lori Lightfoot?\">property tax levy<\/a> to close the deficit. However, Brown pulled the measure due to concerns and a lack of information and&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_1ddff7de-3d5d-11ef-9a0d-2f2755dc133f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposed<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;her 0.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/transit-searches-for-ways-to-replace-billions-in-federal-emergency-money\/\" title=\"Transit seeks alternatives for replacing federal emergency funds worth billions\">1% sales tax increase<\/a> instead for &ldquo;new investments.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The general fund previously supported many of those&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/my.spokanecity.org\/communitysafety\/#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Spokane%20is,City%20of%20Spokane%20through%202035.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">investments<\/a><\/strong>, but some were suspended because of the deficit. Still, Communications Director Erin Hut told The Center Square last month that &ldquo;the sales tax has always been new investments,&rdquo; which differs from Brown.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re able to achieve our budgetary goals of getting that structural deficit down to zero,&rdquo; Brown&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_3b7e23fc-8b18-11ef-8c53-4b58d4b93f15.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;the council on Monday, &ldquo;then all of the community sales revenue can go to new investments, and we&rsquo;ve discussed before what these look like.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Following Brown&rsquo;s comment, Hut sent a text to The Center Square noting she understands the confusion, &ldquo;but there is no plan to use the funding from the sales tax proposal to fill the deficit.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have identified a path forward out of the deficit by the end of the upcoming biennium without the money from the sales tax proposal,&rdquo; she wrote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hut added that while nearly $100,000 was moved around for the proposal&rsquo;s messaging campaign, the city only spent $43,000. The rest is still available, and the county has also sent out informational mailers regarding its tax&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_e130c60e-81ab-11ef-8f6b-f728f2756ae1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">renewal<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;while under its own revenue&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_2483076a-6bd0-11ef-af21-f77071c43e21.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shortfalls<\/a><\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/RCW\/default.aspx?cite=35.33.075\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">State law<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;requires the city to operate under a balanced budget, and it&rsquo;s doing so for 2024 thanks to&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/washington\/article_f0f58af4-3efb-11ef-8696-03c8cca1d147.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">moves<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;taken by the city over the last few months. Still, since Spokane recently transitioned to a biennial budget, it doesn&rsquo;t have to balance the delta entirely until the end of 2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The decisions made in 2024 have already put us on the right path, and we will continue to do so through 2025 with the objective to close it completely during that [2025-2026] biennium,&rdquo; Hut wrote. &ldquo;While the budget will be balanced, as required by RCW, our focus is on creating a sustainable budget.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, cuts might not balance the budget after all. Hut said they&rsquo;re looking at other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-justify-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants-by-arguing-it-will-increase-deficit\/\" title=\"Democrats Justify Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants by Arguing It Will Increase Deficit\">cost-saving measures<\/a> but hinted that it might come down to the city&rsquo;s diminished reserves. In April, Brown said the reserves had sunk from $28.3 million to $7.6 million since 2019, slightly less than the remaining deficit for 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We will be operating within a balanced budget &ndash;&nbsp;the key word here is &lsquo;structural&rsquo; deficit. We are ultimately trying to match revenues and expenditures. A balanced budget is resources meeting expenditures [required by law],&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Resources can be reserve dollars, too.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1839284\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1839284\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spokane allocated $43K for tax hike campaign amid $25M deficit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2356703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24014160623172-1-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[42875,43137,32585,43293],"class_list":["post-2356702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-budget-deficit","tag-campaign-spending","tag-spokane","tag-tax-hike"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24014160623172-1-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2356702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2356703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2356702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2356702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}