Faced with a projected $27 million structural deficit in the City of Tacoma’s General Fund that is anticipated to grow in the upcoming biennium, City Manager Hyun Kim has presented the City Council with a comprehensive Roadmap to Recovery. The phased plan outlines a strategy to bring expense growth in line with revenue growth while modernizing how the City delivers essential public services.
Guided by the strategic policy vision set forth by the City Council, the Roadmap to Recovery emphasizes measured organizational changes, proactive fiscal discipline, and strict financial transparency.
“The Roadmap to Recovery is a coordinated effort to safeguard the City of Tacoma’s long-term sustainability and support its ongoing stewardship of public resources,” said City Manager Kim. “These are decisive steps we would take even in times of abundance because they represent modern business practices and a commitment to highly efficient local government.”
Operating under the City Council’s top policy directive, the goal is to streamline operations and support the uninterrupted delivery of essential public services. By addressing the deficit now, the City aims to avoid arbitrary, across-the-board spending reductions and broad layoffs.
To close the General Fund gap, the Roadmap to Recovery centers on rigorous, data-driven strategies:
- Strict Cost Containment and Financial Discipline: Continuing its publicly announced General Government hiring freeze, the City is capturing an estimated $3 to 5 million in savings in 2026. This ongoing cost-containment measure targets administrative growth rather than essential public services, and it aligns with the proactive fiscal policies and strict fund accounting practices that recently earned the City an AA+ bond rating.
- Data-Driven Service Prioritization: To support the uninterrupted delivery of essential public services, City Manager Kim has directed all departments to conduct comprehensive, rigorous evaluations of their operations. This assessment will exhaust all internal efficiencies and administrative savings before any decisions are made that impact the public, while also identifying tasks the City can stop doing to protect existing staff from burnout.
- Collaborative Labor Solutions: Recognizing that payroll and benefits are significant budget drivers, the City is initiating collaborative discussions with its labor partners to conduct a deeper assessment of systemic costs, including public safety overtime scheduling and long-term pension obligations.
A key organizational shift within the Roadmap to Recovery is the elimination of a deputy city manager position. Another is the forthcoming consolidation of Environmental Services and Public Works into a single, unified department led by Director Ramiro Chavez.
Taking full effect on January 1, 2027, the phased leadership integration begins immediately. By centralizing engineering under City Engineer Cory Newton, combining workgroups performing similar work, and eliminating redundant administrative structures, the move is designed to streamline operations and modernize service delivery.
Aside from the elimination of one department director position, the City is not targeting filled operational, engineering, or frontline maintenance roles.
For a comprehensive, transparent discussion on the data, strategy, and financial realities behind the Roadmap to Recovery, community members are invited to listen to this episode of the City of Tacoma’s new podcast series, Talking Tacoma.
Additional details on the Roadmap to Recovery are also available at tacoma.gov/roadmaptorecovery.