Wenatchee city officials have their work cut out for them, as they work on finding areas in the general fund budget to cut in order to get a balanced budget plan for next year. The city council held a lengthy work session Thursday evening on the budget. The city's executive services director Allison Williams says the budget, as it stands now, has two point one million dollars set aside for funding the Town Toyota Center. That's down from the two point seven million dollars the Mayor had in the September 1st preliminary budget proposal. Williams says the council proposed other changes from the Mayor's proposed spending plan. The September 1st spending plan asked city department heads to make five percent cuts. Wenatchee Fire Chief Stan Smoke had suggested a business fee for fire inspection. Wenatchee Police Chief Tom Robbins said in order to reach that five percent target, he would have to lay off three officers and a records clerk. Council members balked at those cuts and instead are looking at other cuts. One option, taking hotel-motel tax money now spent on tourism marketing, and using that to pay down debt on the Town Toyota Center. That would free up more general fund dollars for police and fire departments. Williams says the council also talked about whether or not to go forward with imposing a 20 dollar car tab fee. That would generate an estimated 500 thousand dollars a year. Williams says council members said before imposing such a fee, they want to have an advisory vote to gauge public interest.
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