TACOMA, Wash. — The City of Tacoma is working to address a $40 million deficit in its multi-billion-dollar, two-year budget plan.
The city manager’s proposed cuts include eliminating more than 100 staff positions and defunding several municipal programs.
The draft budget targets specialized teams in the city’s police and fire departments alongside broader administrative consolidations. City leaders are evaluating structural changes to municipal services as they seek to balance spending over the next two years.
The proposed budget cuts target specialized crisis and response programs within emergency services.
The Tacoma Fire Department’s Holistic Outreach Promoting Engagement (HOPE) team helps individuals in crisis who don’t require traditional 911 emergency response, while the police department’s community service officers handle some non-emergency community issues.
Notices have already been sent to employees who could lose their positions under the proposal.
Tacoma Fire Chief Sionna Stallings-Ala’ilima noted that most calls handled by the HOPE team ultimately required first responders anyway, while expressing support for balancing the budget.
“Every year, the deficit gets bigger and so, [with] the city manager’s roadmap to recovery, I was really pro- making some hard choices just to get us out of that deficit and that’s what he’s proposed, which is a balanced budget,” Stallings-Ala’ilima said.
Tacoma City Council Member Sandesh Saldage voiced hesitation about eliminating community service officers during council discussions, pointing to their role in local outreach.
“We have to understand we have a lot of response needs,” he said, recounting a story about a community services officer who helped a resident in his district deal with a stolen car.
According to Saldage, that resident relied on his vehicle to get to work, and without it, he was at risk of potentially losing his job. The work with the community resource officer helped find a solution to the person’s stolen car.
Saldage said stories like that underline what CSOs bring to Tacoma and its residents. He emphasized the work of those officers, ”builds trust and transparency.”
Beyond emergency services, the city’s proposal includes merging the Environmental Services and Public Works departments into a single department.
Human services, housing and homelessness response operations would also consolidate under the Neighborhood and Community Services Department.
Additionally, the city is considering halting in-house asphalt production to buy material on the open market and potentially save money.
The city is also considering using artificial intelligence to speed up the permitting process within city jurisdictions.
Another small element of the budget proposals is ending city funding for the Tacoma Farmers Market, which some city leaders say has created a stable market and can essentially stand on its own.
Locals expressed concern that potential cuts could affect public safety programs.
Tacoma resident Chris Eberhardt said that, regardless of what happens in the Tacoma City budget, his concern remains with the safety of his family.
“My biggest concern is the council maintains its focus on safety,” Eberhard said. “I’d like to see safer streets. My family is in fear right now,” he added.
The Tacoma City Council will continue debating the proposed spending plan before taking a final vote.
Budget adoption is scheduled for November.