Bellevue: City Could Lose Up to $1M in Revenue After State Budget Adoption

The state's budget will slash between $655,000 and $1 million in revenue after the Legislature adopted the state budget last week, according to city officials.

It has not been determined how the cuts will affect Bellevue's budget, but the cuts could have been worse, city officials said in a press release.

(Click here to watch the presentation at Monday night's city council meeting, or click on the video embedded above.)

The governor and lawmakers in Olympia had considered legislative proposals had the potential to eliminate $11 to $15 million from Bellevue's annual revenue, according to a city press release.

The big bite will come from $651,000 lost over the second half of this year and the first half of 2013 because the Legislature diverted a fiscal year's worth of liquor excise taxes from local governments to the state budget, according to the city's release.

Proposals calling for the state to take more local revenue were defeated or resolved in other ways, according to city officials:

• Administration of state B&O tax stays local: If the state had taken over administration the local share of the business and occupation taxes, it could have cost Bellevue $1.6 to $6 million a year.
• Cell phone sales tax remains: A Thurston County Superior Court vacated a ruling that had exempted cell phones from sales tax, so the city is not liable for a $5.6 million refund, and will continue to collect $1.3 million in annual sales tax revenue.
• Annexation sales tax credit still available: Bellevue is still eligible to claim the credit, which would provide up to $1.2 million annually to help cover costs associated with providing services to South Bellevue areas that have petitioned to be annexed.