Today (October 26) the Council entered its budget deliberations. A lot has transpired to get us to this point. The process began Sept 19 with County Executive Bruce Dammeier presentation of his 2024-2025 Budget Proposal. Thereafter, the Council heard from Gary Robinson, the County’s Finance Director, on Thursday, Sept. 28, when he provided an in-depth overview of the budget proposal. Throughout October, County departments and separately elected County offices regarding their budget proposals made presentations to the Council to explain their needs and priorities.
The process illustrated that the County is fortunate to have such dedicated public servants doing great work to deliver vital community and public services to the residents of Pierce County. We also know there is a lot of needs to be addressed in our community right now, and we have limited resources to address it all.
The way we invest our collective public dollars into our community is largely decided in the Council budget retreats we are embarking on. They are long, sometimes stretching well into the night, but at the end of this process, we will have a budget we can be proud to put forward to you. For this biennium, we’re using a series of priorities to guide our decision-making process. They are:
- Housing Affordability and Supply
- Homelessness and Stable Housing
- Public Safety
- Behavioral Health Systems and Substance Use Disorder
- Youth and Young Adults
- Economy and Workforce
- Infrastructure Needs
- Sustainability and Livability
- American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA Preliminary Reallocation Priorities)
Our budget retreat schedule is listed below. Feel free to join us in chambers or on Zoom. While we won’t be taking public comment at this time, there will be an opportunity on Nov. 14 and Nov. 21 to share your perspectives on the budget. As always, you can also connect with your councilmember to share your views and opinions on how the Council should prioritize spending.
- Thursday, Oct. 26: Budget Retreat begins at 9:30 a.m.
Attend remotely: https://www.piercecountywa.gov/4898/Study-Sessions - Friday, Oct. 27: Budget Retreat begins at 9:30 a.m.
Attend remotely: https://www.piercecountywa.gov/4898/Study-Sessions - Wednesday, Nov. 1: Budget Retreat begins at 9:30 a.m.
Attend remotely: https://www.piercecountywa.gov/4898/Study-Sessions - Thursday, Nov. 2: Budget retreat begins at 9:30 a.m.
Attend remotely: https://www.piercecountywa.gov/4898/Study-Sessions
