Renton’s 2027-2028 proposed budget has been published, and much of it has me worried. Spending is increased more than 20% over the 2025-2026 biennium, but big ticket costs are not included. For instance, there does not appear to be money budgeted for such things as repairing and reopening Carco Theater, repairing the 200 Mill Avenue buildings, or reopening the Historical Museum. The budget also seems overly optimistic about future tax collections while growing city employment by 22 people, creating a risk of employee layoff in the near future.
And even though the document proudly labels the budget “balanced”, it actually depletes the general fund by $11.9 million over two years.
The budget document also says that to maintain the proposed increased level of staffing in the future, even more money will be needed. This money will either be borrowed using bonds, or from raising property taxes higher than the state’s one-percent cap, by using Renton’s “banked capacity.”
But Renton’s “banked capacity” exists as result of Renton leaders asking Renton voters to approve the spinning off of the library service and the fire service. Renton voters were assured their city property taxes would be lowered by an equivalent amount if they agreed to pay new taxes to King County Library System and Renton Regional Fire Authority. After voter approval in both cases, Renton officials lowered the city property taxes as promised, not taking the 1% increase in property tax allowed by the state. Treating this as “money in the bank” for the city to raise taxes in the future breaks the promise to Renton voters.
The document overstates sales tax growth, and tees us up a future budget crisis. It claims increased sales tax is a bright spot, with sales tax collections 6% higher than anticipated at the start of 2025. This is described as a windfall that resulted from unexpectedly strong retail sales, and the city’s budget assumes Renton will continue to see this superior growth in sales tax. Unfortunately, the budget did not acknowledge that much of this increase is a result of the State of Washington adding sales taxes to a whole new range of services, like web design, security services, temporary staffing, marketing, and tax services. These sales taxes have been rolled back by the legislature effective in 2029 as part of the give-and-take when the legislature passed the millionaires tax. In addition, sales taxes have been eliminated on certain personal hygiene products in the same negotiations. This means new staff that are funded with these increased sales taxes could be subject to layoff in a few years. (There is a separate a 1/10th of a percent increase in sales taxes imposed by Renton that will fund new public safety positions, for about $4.5 million per year– this part of the funding is more secure, although it is subject to the normal cyclical nature of retail sales)
Strangely, the capital improvement section has charts showing repairs and updates that will be done at Carco Theatre in 2029 and at the City’s 200 Mill Avenue building in 2030, but there is absolutely no mention of the extensive flood damage and flood repairs needed at either building. These charts look like charts that were created in 2025, before the 2026 floods closed the buildings. Similarly, the capital improvement chart for the Renton Market shows that it will be completed in July of 2026, even though that date came and went, and the project remains far from complete. The History Museum chart talks about keeping the programming level the same as it is now, which is nothing. In short, these capital improvement charts are key elements of the budget, and many of them look like they have not been updated in two years.
I have many other concerns about this budget, but I’ll save some of them for a future blog entry. I would really enjoy hearing from readers on what you like and don’t like in this proposed budget. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section and send them to city council as well (council@rentonwa.gov) .
Readers can find the complete document on my blog here, or on the city’s website here.
The following paragraphs are all screenshots from the budget document.
