2013–2014 BIENNIAL BUDGET - the City of Tukwila

2013-2014 Biennial Budget City of Tukwila, WashingtonREADER’S GUIDEFor the novice, the City’s Biennial Budget Document can look formidable. Since budget document userscome with a wide variety of backgrounds, and include City staff, City Councilmembers, citizens, andfinancial market experts, the information in the biennial budget is designed to provide a lot of differentinformation about the City to a lot of different users. The information in the budget can be grouped intoone of four main areas to facilitate an understanding of what the City plans to do with its resources forthe next biennium period.1. A Policy Document: The City’s biennial budget addresses two primary kinds of policies: policies thatare under development (usually stated as goals to be accomplished) that may change how the Cityoperates in the future, and policies that are already in place. The Mayor’s Budget Message, found at thebeginning of the document, provides the background, sets the stage for the specific work plan that willbe accomplished during the coming budget period, and identifies the policy issues that are important inthe community as identified by the City Council. New policy issues that have a fiscal impact arehighlighted in this message. All of these policy issues have the potential to impact fees, taxes, and/or theallocation of existing staff or financial resources.2. A Communications Device: The City’s biennial budget provides information about the priorities theCity Council has set to be accomplished during the next two fiscal years, but it also includes informationabout the day-to-day activities the City performs. The Mayor’s Budget Message provides a concisediscussion of the major priorities of the City. The financial and department information included in thedetailed budget section of this document provides additional information about the budget for the majorpriorities, but also provides a considerable amount of information about the day-to-day activities and theresources required to meet service demands. Performance measures are included in the detailed budgetsection for each fund to provide information on how efficient and effective the City is with resources inpursuit of meeting Council goals and management objectives.3. A Financial Plan: The budget document is foremost a financial plan, providing a numerical road mapthat matches resources available with the spending priorities defined by the Mayor and City Council.Each operational area of the budget is comprised of specific departments and is summarized by thebudget organization charts.a. The Budget by Department: The department designation is used to group a set of like activitiesto enhance the opportunities for operational efficiencies, or to take advantage of professionalqualifications of staff to work on multiple types of projects. A department can operate in just onefund, like the Finance Department operating in the General Fund. In this case, the departmenthas a fairly singular focus in its work, with specialized training that does not cross into otherwork areas. A department can also operate in more than one fund, like the Public WorksDepartment that operates in multiple funds, including the General Fund, Water, Sewer, SurfaceWater Utility Funds, and various Capital Project Funds. In this case the department has a morecomplex set of work tasks, but the same set of staff skills can be used in a number of areas. Eachdepartment also has divisions and within each division there can be anywhere from one toseveral programs. The program level is used to either manage specific work, allow the ability tocost specific services for which customers are charged a fee for service, or report to the CityCouncil, citizens, or outside agencies._____________________________________________________________________________________________Page 28