On Wednesday, Nov. 1, Pierce County Council Chair Ryan Mello (District 4) went on an early morning walk in the Bethel School District in Spanaway with Pierce County Councilmembers Jani Hitchen (District 6) and Amy Cruver (District 3). The purpose was to see the routes hundreds of kids in the school district take each morning.

Spanaway faces many of the challenges regarding infrastructure and public safety.

On that cold and wet Nov. 1 morning, Mello echoed this, saying, “Most of the routes are without sidewalks. There’s nothing like walking in another’s shoes, and it’s so timely because we’re developing the 2024-2025 Biennial Budget. There is a lot of need.”

Mello daylighted what the Council felt some of that need was with the release of the first amendment, known as Amendment One, to the County’s proposed 2024-2025 Biennial Budget on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Amendment One was adopted by the Council’s Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, Nov. 9, with the Proposed 2024-2025 Biennial Budget moving out of committee as amended.

“Because Spanaway is unincorporated, and the county's focus over the last 20 years has been on areas of new growth, intentional improvements have yet to be made,” said Hitchen. “In this next budget, we plan several initiatives to take on and address these inequities. This year, we asked Planning and Public Works to look at areas in Parkland and review for street lighting, specifically looking for locations that show a lack of lighting that community members, especially students, frequently travel. We hope to get that report back early in 2024.”

The Pierce County Council held its first of two public hearings for the proposed budget on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, where councilmembers had their first opportunity to daylight their own amendments. The Council continued the budget to Tuesday, Nov. 21, where it is expected to pass and be sent to Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier for signature.

It maintains many of the proposals offered in Dammeier’s proposed budget delivered to the Council on Tuesday, Sept. 19. For example, Dammeier’s proposed budget restored 12 positions funded out of the County’s general fund in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, resulting in a cost of about $3.4 million. That is still in. Here's everything you need to know about the 2024-2025 Proposed Budget (Ordinance No. 2023-44s2).

Here's what you need to know about the 2024-2025 Biennial Budget.

A significant addition to the 2024-2025 Budget was the Council-initiated Community Needs Fund program. The Council passed Ordinance No. 2023-68 on Tuesday, Oct. 31, establishing the framework for the program, which allowed for the distribution of funds to community organizations and local government partners for initiatives that will enhance the quality of life for community members in every part of Pierce County.

The program allowed Councilmembers to fund their identified priorities by providing funding capped at $75,000 a year or $150,000 in the biennium for community-led initiatives. Only nonprofit organizations or public entities within Pierce County or currently doing business in the County were eligible.

Dammeier vetoed the Community Needs Fund, citing the need for a competitive process in deciding who gets funded and for what.

In a 4-3 vote, the Pierce County Council failed to override Dammeier’s veto of the Community Needs Fund on Tuesday, Nov. 14. The Council requires a supermajority to override a veto, where at least five members vote to override the Executive’s action.

The 2024-2025 Biennial Budget included $1.27 million in funding for community needs funding for things like senior centers, programs for new mothers, community healthcare and community services, and farmer’s markets.

Mello added that the Council, “Will look for creative ways to get funding into the community where it will matter most, especially our vulnerable populations.”

It Takes a Long-term Approach to Litter Reduction and Graffiti Removal

Dammeier’s budget proposal calls for creating a Community Restoration and Cleanup Initiative with an allocation of $4.5 million from ARPA. Amendment One removes this ARPA allocation.

“We have a litter problem on our streets,” said Vice Chair Marty Campbell (District 5). “I believe the Executive’s ideas for a community restoration initiative is a good start. In talking with our neighbors, I have heard the larger problem is people living on our streets, under bridges and overpasses. Amendment One includes short- and long-term solutions to our area’s housing and homelessness problem.”

Housing Affordability and Supply

Uses $1.3 million of ARPA funds for Eviction Prevention to help people stay in their homes by providing short-term rental and utility payment assistance to help stabilize families at risk of displacement. In addition, 10% of the funds are directed to improving the County’s portal, so applying for assistance is easier.

Provides $2.75 million for the Pierce County Community Development Corporation to establish an Affordable Housing Development and Preservation Rapid Acquisition Program. Public funds will be available to provide low-interest revolving loans to rapidly assist nonprofit organizations with property purchases for affordable housing development or preservation.

Adds staff to the Assessor-Treasurer Office to help low-income senior citizens and service-disabled veterans apply for the state’s Property Tax Exemption program. More than 40,000 seniors and veterans will become eligible for property tax reductions from recent changes in state law. New staff will help these low and fixed-income community members get the tax relief they need.

Homelessness and Stable Housing

Uses $2.5 million from ARPA to establish a stability site outside of Tacoma for people experiencing homelessness. This site will include security, trash pick-up, and hygiene facilities, and it will have wrap-around services as a first step toward more stable and long-term housing options.

Uses $520,000 from ARPA for an additional safe parking site and keeps the four safe parking sites currently supported by the County for another two years.

Some parts of the Community Restoration and Cleanup Initiative remain, such as the purchase of a $300,000 litter vacuum truck to pick up litter along county roads. Amendment One also creates a Community Mural Arts Program for properties in unincorporated Pierce County. This is a $250,000 grant program for local artists to paint murals on walls, focusing on high graffiti areas and managed out of the Economic Development Department and Pierce County Arts Commission.

In describing the program, Campbell said, “In Tacoma, we have seen public artwork turn blight into beauty. Our program will target high graffiti areas across the County, working with local artists to reflect our community's culture, diversity, and natural beauty.”

The 2024-2025 Budget Proposal continues the exploration of other solutions, including Dammeier’s proposal for an Adopt-a-Road Program for $30,000 and neighborhood lighting projects for $250,000.

The Council’s Other Budget Priority Areas are Reflected Heavily

To guide the budget development process, the Council adopted Resolution No. R2023-106 in July that established the Council’s 2024-2025 preliminary budget priorities. Public safety was undoubtedly a central focus area. Other areas include:

Behavioral Health Systems and Substance Use Disorder

• Adds $4.2 million from the Behavioral Health and Therapeutic Courts funding to increase the behavioral health service contracts only partially funded earlier this year. This includes the Health Department’s Teen Mental Health First Aid Program, which expands teen mental health first aid training in schools and youth-serving community organizations across Pierce County, and the Comprehensive Life Resources’ School Connect Program, which provides outpatient behavioral health treatment and navigation services to youth in the Peninsula School District, Orting School District, Puyallup School District, and White River School District.

• Provides $210,000 from Behavioral Health and Therapeutic Courts Tax revenue to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s (Health Department) MedsFirst Pilot Program. For many people with substance use disorder, medications for opioid use disorder are the best path to recovery. Often, though, there are barriers to entry. The MedsFirst Program eliminates the obstacles that wait times or extensive onboarding processes can present.

Youth and Young Adults

• Adds a Children and Families Coordinator to facilitate work with the Birth to 25 Advisory Board, school districts, parks, youth-focused nonprofits, the Health Department, and other groups to establish and maintain a robust support network for the County’s youth and young adults.

• Provides $2 million for young adult internship and employment programs and Youth Drop-In Educational Activities. This is an expansion of the Council-supported Teen Late Night Program from this summer that provided a safe and fun space for teens to gather and hang out during summer break. The Summer Teen Late Night Program will be continued.

Public Safety

• Protects deputies and community members with upgraded body cameras and technology. The cameras activate when deputies draw their sidearm or their taser. They also produce a more transparent, more well-encompassed image. The latest technology upgrades allow residents to upload information from mobile phones, doorbell cameras, and other devices. This makes evidence gathering easier for community members to better inform property crimes and other evidence collection needs.

• Adds a Code Enforcement Officer and one Deputy Prosecuting Attorney to increase Code Enforcement Abatement work. Solid waste-related code violations, such as illegal roadside dumping, make up 45% of code enforcement complaints while zoning issues along shorelines and other protected areas and unpermitted, potentially unsafe structures make up 42%.

• Maintains the Sheriff Department’s hiring bonuses for commissioned law enforcement officers and corrections offers and expands it to Juvenile Detention Officers to attract high-quality candidates to work with youth being held at the Remann Hall Pierce County Juvenile Detention Center. In addition, Amendment One includes a $600,000 ARPA allocation to Juvenile Court to establish youth diversion programs to help prevent recidivism in youth violence and crime.

Economy and Workforce

• Provides more than $6 million in ARPA funding to keep the Pierce County Business Accelerator and Community Navigator Programs funded for another two years.

• Earmarks $500,000 of a $12.8 million ARPA allocation for broadband infrastructure to digital literacy and digital equity services in Pierce County to assist individuals in feeling more proficient in computer and online skills to participate in the modern world more fully.

Infrastructure Needs

• Adds $2.5 million for broadband infrastructure development and partnerships in rural areas of Pierce County, for a total of $12.8 million. This is funded through ARPA.

• Adds a Street Lighting Program with $250,000 from Community Development Block Grants for installation of street lighting at various locations around the County. In addition, the Capital Facilities Plan calls for 25 miles of new sidewalks, 710 curb ramps for accessibility, and 364 crosswalks.

Sustainability and Livability

• Invests more than $50 million in parks and trails over the next two years. These investments include the new Orangegate Park, construction of the Pipeline Trail connecting South Hill and Tacoma, new multipurpose sports fields at Sprinker Recreation Center, and much more. The Draft 2024-2029 Capital Facilities Plan provides a comprehensive list of capital projects.

• Adds a Sustainability Grants Coordinator in Planning & Public Works to advance climate conversations regionally and improve the County’s competitive position for Federal and State funding opportunities such as the federal Inflation Reduction Act and the state’s Climate Commitment Act. This will position residents and businesses to take advantage of these significant federal and state opportunities to save money, energy, and reduce the impact on our climate.

“What I’m really excited about in our 2024-2025 budget is the real investments it makes in managing our Opioid Settlement Funds so we can have the largest impact possible. Our budget provides $600,000 to the Health Department’s Opioid Task Force,” said Councilmember and Chair of the Council’s Health & Human Services Committee Jani Hitchen (District 6). “It also creates a new position to support a coordinated approach to opioid settlement funds across our jurisdictions and the creation of a data tool so we can visually see where and how those dollars are being spent.”

What’s Next

Councilmembers will have a final opportunity to amend the substitute 2024-2025 Budget Ordinance on Tuesday, Nov. 21. There is also a public hearing scheduled for Nov. 21.

“I am pressing in the 2024-25 budget to set aside funding to work on projects identified through the Blue Zones Initiative,” said Hitchen. My amendment will bring project dollars to the table to build some of the community infrastructure identified by the Blue Zones team, and it will happen in the Parkland Spanaway area.

The Council aims to adopt the budget following the Nov. 21 public hearing. After budget adoption, it will go to the Executive for signature, and once signed, the new budget will take effect Jan. 1, 2024.

“For me, public hearings are similar to walking in someone else’s shoes. People’s stories and perspectives on how public money is being spent and invested matter,” said Mello. “We can create a better budget with your participation, and I encourage you to share your thoughts on how you want your money invested to address our County’s most pressing issues on Nov. 21.”