2025-2026 Biennial Budget Development
Our 2025-2026 Biennial Budget development process is an opportunity for us, as a community, to come together to meet pressing community needs with a focus on establishing long-term, sustainable solutions.
Background and Updates on Budget Development
Given that the City’s six-year budget forecast indicates that expenses will grow faster than revenues in the General Fund over the next biennium, staff is reviewing options to address the gap including revenue options and service reductions.
Community Engagement and Outreach
We will be discussing the development of our 2025-2026 Biennial Budget during regularly scheduled City Council study sessions and meetings, and access details along with specifics on how community members can share their thoughts with us will be distributed to the media, posted online at cityoftacoma.org/budget and cityoftacoma.legistar.com, aired on TV Tacoma, and promoted on our official social media platforms.
Opportunities for Community Feedback
We have collected information from nine One Tacoma visioning workshops. Starting in June 2024, we began community engagement on the 2025-2026 Biennial Budget at the Broadway Farmers Markets. Additional special events may be scheduled.
Developing a Balanced Budget With ‘Balancing Act'
Online, one of the tools we will use to gather quantitative data is called Balancing Act. It allows you to play with budget scenarios by making increases or decreases to service levels as you try to balance the City’s General Fund budget. Visit the Balancing Act web page to find out more.
Two workshops were held in August 2024.
2025–2026 Biennial Budget ‘Balancing Act’ Workshop in October
Join the Office of Management and Budget for a workshop that will walk through the interactive budget tool – “Balancing Act” – to break down the 2025–2026 proposed General Fund budget by priority and answer questions. Submissions and feedback will be shared with the City Manager to guide the final development and adoption of the 2025–2026 Proposed Budget. Exact dates will be determined at a later date.
Access details for the virtual event are as follows:
Where do your property taxes go?
Where do your sales taxes go?
Capital Facilities Plan
In addition to the City's operating expenses, the City Council also considers allocation of resources for substantial investments. These investments, often called capital projects, are planned over a six-year horizon through a document called the Capital Facilities Plan (CFP). This document is mandated by the Growth Management Act (GMA) and shows the City's desired projects, available resources, and alignment with the Comprehensive Plan. To review the 2021-2026 Adopted Capital Facilities Plan, please click here.
For the 2025-2030 CFP, the project list is currently under consideration by the Planning Commission.