Mayor Mike McGinn's comment on 2010 mid-year budget reductions

"Seattle is facing difficult choices relating to the financial health of our city. In difficult times, we look to the values of our community, and seek to safeguard those values even while we are scaling back to meet budget deficits.

Over the past five months, I've held dozens of community town halls and met with hundreds of citizens and community leaders. Today's mid-year budget release reflects the shared values of the community as expressed in those conversations.

Budget Director Beth Goldberg drafted a budget that is fiscally responsible, protects public safety and human services, and prepares us to deal with reductions in revenue in 2010 and going into 2011.

The tragedy in Fremont this past weekend gave us a concrete example of the importance of protecting our public safety budget; in light of that event, I am not proposing any reductions to the Fire Department, giving us an opportunity to fully review the safety implications of any potential reductions.

I am also pleased to announce that we've been able to keep our public swimming pools and community centers open through the end of 2010.

But, make no mistake. We continue to face difficult choices in the city budget, and the projected deficits for 2011 will require us to work even harder to provide the needed services.

We'll continue to let our values as a community guide us in those decisions."

View a presentation of the mid-year budget reductions - Acrobat PDF

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Office of the Mayor