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City of Tacoma’s Proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget Now Available

TACOMA, Wash. – The City of Tacoma’s proposed 2025-2026 Biennial Budget — a comprehensive document that seeks to align the City’s services with its financial capacity, City Council priorities, and community needs over the next two years — is now available at cityoftacoma.org/budgetdevelopment. Despite the impacts of rising inflation and a contracting economy, the $4.7 billion proposed budget prioritizes building and strengthening belief and trust with residents while maintaining essential services.

“The City of Tacoma is grateful for the community’s engagement throughout the budget process thus far,” said City Manager Elizabeth Pauli. “We’ve worked diligently to balance City Council priorities and community needs with available resources, prioritizing the delivery of essential services while building trust and transparency.”

$641 million of the City of Tacoma’s proposed budget falls within its General Fund. In September 2024, it projected a $24 million deficit in its General Fund as projected revenues have increased at a slower rate than expenses. Projected revenues did not include projected fire levy revenues, due to the timing of the election.

The City of Tacoma’s proposed budget seeks to address the projected General Fund deficit through expense reductions, strategic partnerships with service providers, realignment of expenses with existing specialized revenue sources, targeted fee increases, elimination of certain tax exemptions, and the use of reserves.

In response to rising costs, increases in the City of Tacoma’s General Fund spending were made where necessary, to maintain service levels in critical service areas including public safety, mental health and chemical dependency programming, and youth programming. 

The City of Tacoma’s proposed budget:

• Prioritizes basic health and safety services
• Responds to the needs of Tacoma’s businesses
• Continues to evaluate alternative response programs
• Continues the implementation of planning efforts
• Supports permit services and compliance work

In this time of constraint, there are some areas where the City of Tacoma’s proposed budget falls short of meeting high-priority community needs. Specifically, the proposed budget does not provide funding to continue temporary and emergency shelters past June 2025. The City is actively advocating for additional support at the state and federal levels.

Details on the City of Tacoma’s proposed budget and opportunities to engage in the budget development process are available at cityoftacoma.org/budgetdevelopment.

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