2013–2014 BIENNIAL BUDGET - the City of Tukwila

2013-2014 Biennial Budget City of Tukwila, WashingtonBUDGET PROCEDURES AND AMENDMENT PROCESSThe City prepares its biennial budget in accordance with Optional Municipal Code 35A.33 of the RevisedCode of Washington. Biennial budgeting has been permitted for Washington cities since 1985 and allowscities to adopt a two-year appropriation. An appropriation represents the city’s legal authority to expendfunds. Traditionally, the appropriations have been for one-year terms. State law has extended this legalauthority so that a city’s legislative body may approve an appropriation or budget, for a two-year term.Currently, an annual budget means that every other budget is developed in the context of elections formany of the policy makers. By design, the City’s biennial budget is considered in non-election years, asthe biennium must begin in odd-numbered years.The most common reason for using a two-year appropriation is the time savings in both the budgetdevelopment and approval process. This is true of staff time invested in preparing the budget as well asthe time Council spends during the approval and adoption phases. While it does take more time toprepare a two-year budget than one for the traditional twelve months, the additional time spent is not assignificant as preparing two annual budgets. As a result, over the two-year period, there is a substantialtime savings. This time savings allows staff and Council to focus on long-range strategic planning.The concept of a two-year appropriation is straightforward. Rather than a twelve-month window duringwhich the appropriated funds can be legally spent, a biennial budget provides for a twenty-four monthwindow. The two-year budget provides an opportunity to widen the planning horizon and allow morelong-term thinking to be part of the financial plan that the budget represents. However, there may alsobe concerns about spending portions of the budget earlier in the biennium than had been planned. Forthis reason, many cities have adopted variations of a biennial budget.The requirements for preparing an annual budget and a biennial budget are similar. One distinction isthat a “mid-biennium review” is required with a biennial budget. The purpose of this review is to makeadjustments to the budget or essentially, a tune up. This review is not intended to become anothercomplete budget process in itself. The mid-biennium review begins September 1 st and is to be completedby the end of the first year of the budget.The typical calendar for the City of Tukwila’s Budget is as follows:Page 31