Tacoma budget officer: $21 million reappropriation planned as 2024 gains driven by one‑time transfers

Interim Budget Officer Reed Bennion told the Tacoma City Council Committee of the Whole on May 6 that year‑end 2024 general‑fund revenues exceeded budget by nearly $20 million but that much of the gain came from one‑time transfers that will not recur. Bennion said council will see a budget‑modification ordinance on May 13 to reappropriate money and to carry forward obligations into the 2025–26 biennium.

Bennion said the general fund ended 2024 with revenues of about $333 million and expenses of about $325 million, producing an approximately $7.5 million contribution to fund balance before reappropriation. He said the single largest positive variance was “miscellaneous revenues,” driven largely by a transfer from the American Rescue Plan Act fund and by the closeout of a Union Station bond fund after the city sold Union Station to the federal government in 2022. “ARPA is done and so that money will not be showing up in the general fund anymore,” Bennion said.

The reappropriation package Bennion described would increase general‑fund appropriations in 2025–26 by about $21 million. He laid out the major components: roughly $2.8 million of budget cleanup items left over from January; about $9.2 million to cover higher‑than‑expected third‑party liability payouts tied to police and…