Thursday, October 1, 2026
Olympia City Manager Jay Burney proposed staff reductions and leaving vacant positions unfilled to help close the city’s projected $6.5 million budget deficit in 2026, while avoiding cuts to public safety, homelessness response and other city services.
During the city council’s budget study session on Tuesday, Oct. 14, Burney said the proposal reflects “significant progress” from earlier drafts that called for deeper reductions.
“We’ve come a long way over the last 30 days in terms of looking at reductions," he said.
Burney said the guiding principle behind the plan is to maintain programs and services, particularly those tied to voter approved funding measures or protected revenues.
“There are no reductions here for police, fire, homeless response or any of our alternative programs. We have also avoided further significant cuts to support services like HR (human resources), IT (information technology) and finance,” he told the council members.
The proposed reductions include:
The total savings from the reductions amount to just over $1.2 million.
Though the staff reduction plan is not yet final, Burney said only two to three individuals are likely to be affected. Those at-risk employees would remain on payroll through February 2026 to allow time for reassignment within the city.
Mayor Dontae Payne expressed reluctant support for the proposal.
“I hate to see this and be here again for a second year in a row," said Payne, who acknowledged the difficult choices involved.
He commended Burney and department heads for minimizing the cuts, noting earlier versions of the list were “much more dramatic and painful.”
While Burney is not recommending it, he informed the city council that they have several options if needed, including about $2.1 million above its 10% reserve, $1.5 million in flexible funds, and the ability to declare exigent finance circumstances to access park capital funds.
“Right now, you have not utilized any of these. I am not recommending, but I want to let you know everything that is at your disposal as you continue through the balancing process,” he said.
The budget process is going to continue with public hearings, rates and fees discussion, and final budget adoption is expected in November.
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Wesley
You mean "climate justice" and like programs aren't economically viable? How weird . . . . .
Friday, October 17, 2025 Report this
jimlazar
Cutting the City's climate program is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Downtown will be underwater in a few decades, and the City needs to work on addressing that challenge.
There are only two choices: adapt or retreat. Adaptation means building a dike and seawall system, plus installing massive pumps to move water that accumulated inside the dike to the other side. Like they use in New Orleans.
If Olympia would enforce it's many codes -- sidewalk maintenance, vegetation management, fence height, and more, the violation fines could generate as much money as parking code enforcement does now. I don't understand why you get a ticket if you park too long, but you don't get a ticket if your sidewalk causes a tripping hazard for people walking past your house. Code enforcement could be a major profit center for Olympia, like it is in many other cities.
Part of the problem is the multi-family tax exemption given to millionaire builders as a reward for building expensive apartment buildings. That money comes out of the taxes of the rest of us. The city should do the opposite -- charge them higher impact fees for the needed public facilities, from roads and parks to sidewalks and police. Issaquah takes about $30,000 per new house more than Olympia does. With about 500 new homes built each year, that would be about $15 million per year. That's a subsidy to builders.
Then there is the effect of Tim Eyman's Initiative 747. If City property taxes had kept up with inflation for the past 20 years, the City would be bringing in $10 million/year more than they are. The schools come to the voters every four years for an operating levy. Why is Olympia afraid to do the same? Are they concerned that voters don't have confidence in City government?
Friday, October 17, 2025 Report this
TheVirtualOne
Just looking at the list of various positions mentioned shows how much fat there still is. Get rid of the woke justice, attorney, sea level, and planning positions. They are unnecessary.
Saturday, October 18, 2025 Report this
Snevets
TAX THE RICH!
Saturday, October 18, 2025 Report this
ClownPenis88
OK here's the plan, 1.) enforce the state laws as a double down method. We should recover from this years budget cuts from our states exposure to our "GREEN SCAM" 2.) Once the community sees our consistency of our state laws we can open a new "scam" for the state where we say the air needs to be taxed higher then we can funnel our state towards WIND ENERGY. 3) Then we'll have enough votes to start our BIO_DOME ENERGY COMPOUNDS ON MARS
Saturday, October 18, 2025 Report this
BobJacobs
I'm surprised and disappointed to see mention of "the ability to declare exigent finance circumstances to access park capital funds". Those funds were promised to be used for parks capital funding (acquisition and development of park lands) as a condition of our voting for them. This means they are a contract between the city and city residents.
These funds are being used right now for several important major projects. I believe alternative funding sources must be found.
Bob Jacobs
Saturday, October 18, 2025 Report this
BillString
Code enforcement at this time would simply be financially punishing cash-strapped residents because the city failed to do anything for decades. Maybe AFTER the city fixes the sidewalks and streets.
Sunday, October 19, 2025 Report this
LindaD
"The multi-family tax exemption given to millionaire builders as a reward for building expensive apartment buildings. That money comes out of the taxes of the rest of us." Then raise property taxes on the rest of us, including rental owners who then must raise rents. The city hired people to impose impossible, expensive housing costs on local rental owners, including registration fees to participate, but excluded the big developers from the same rules. Only some 28% of owners complied, so now they don't have enough to pay the people they hired. Shut down the program and lay off those people. That would help as well as help keep rents lower. Then collect property taxes from the big apartment buildings.
Monday, October 20, 2025 Report this