The proposed Seattle 2004 budget is online. It has details on expenditures and number of positions in each department. Fiscal crisis has held the bottom line steady for the past two years, but in the late 1990s the city's expenditures grew at over 10% a year during a time of low inflation and modest population growth. Recently a number of levys were approved for parks and libraries, and in the next few years dollars will need to be found in the general budget to operate the new facilities created thereby. The upshot is that as soon as the economy improves, there will be great pressure to raise taxes and spend even more.
If Seattle is to keep its budget in line, there needs to be equal pressure to contain costs -- not pressure imposed by financial crisis, but by citizens protecting their own interests and lobbying for fiscal responsibility. Knowing where the money is spent is the first step in that process. I encourage everyone to spend a few minutes reading the overview and the summary tables.