On Dec. 4, the Redmond City Council approved Mayor John Marchione’s budget proposal for the 2013-14 biennium with a 5-2 vote.

The new $581.5 million budget is a slight increase from 2011-12 and includes a 1 percent increase in property taxes for residents.

Marchione said it was this increase that led council members Dave Carson and Hank Myers to vote “no” on approving the budget. The mayor said the property tax increase will add about $6 per year for the average Redmond household, adding that the city has increased the property tax each year by 1 percent since at least 2005 as part of its long-range plan.

“Slow and steady keeps us healthy,” Marchione said.

The increase is to accommodate inflation, employee benefits and the growing maintenance work for the city’s capital projects.

To create the upcoming budget, the city used the Budgeting by Priorities (BP) process for the third budgeting cycle. Citizen involvement plays a large role in the process as city services are reconsidered through the prism of what citizens value most. According to the city website, “the final budget ‘buys’ only those services most valued by the citizens,” or what they consider priorities.

The City of Redmond’s budget is broken up into six priorities, which were determined by citizens in 2008 during the first BP process in 2008: infrastructure and growth, clean and green environment, community building, safety, business vitality and responsible government.

Marchione said six citizens were also part of the results teams (one per priority) to work with city staff to create budget proposals for each  priority.

“It’s a big commitment for someone to step up and volunteer,” he said.

Citizens on the results teams spent about 60 hours doing their part of the job and worked from the end of April to July. The city also held a number of public hearings at the beginning of the year to give the community the opportunity to voice their concerns about the budget.

Marchione said the main things he heard from citizens included a more active downtown, more green infrastructure and programs and more transit service throughout the city. He said the city has also received “kudos” for their customer service and a “thank you” from human services organizations for the city’s continued commitment to support their needs.