The Des Moines City Council convened for an Aug. 6, 2026 Committee of the Whole and Study Session to chart a strategic path through tightening fiscal realities.
Led by legislative advisor Anthony Hemstad and City Manager Katherine Caffrey, discussions centered on managing strict state-level funding constraints and navigating local revenue limitations.
Councilmembers evaluated key priorities spanning public safety expansions, critical infrastructure projects, and permit process reforms.
The session highlighted a clear central challenge: balancing essential community services against the necessity of maintaining robust financial reserves in an uncertain economy.
2027 State Legislative Priorities
Hemstad led a discussion of the city’s state legislative priorities. He mentioned that the primaries just happened, and that this is a major election year. It’s looking like there will be an expanded Democratic majority among state legislators, with the more moderate Democrats being pushed out. He added that the state is facing a very substantial deficit, even with the possible new “millionaire’s tax”.
Hemstad mentioned multiple times that this will be a “defensive” year for local governments, with 80% of Washington cities facing budget shortfalls. It is unlikely that new funding requests will be granted, and the focus should be on maintaining current levels. He added that, of course, we have zero chance of getting what we don’t ask for. He recommended making just two asks for top priority projects.
He gave the Redondo Esplanade Safety Project and Seawall Replacement Project the best chances of being funded. Both are in their early stages and just in need of planning dollars ($600,000 and $1 million, respectively) at this time.
Regarding public safety, Hemstad said there is still no money coming in from House Bill 2015. The state needs to reconfigure the bill so that cities can have access to this source of public safety money.
City Budget Priorities
City Manager Caffrey led the council in a discussion of big picture budget priorities. To start, she explained that 70% of the general fund comes from property tax. However, less than 7 cents of every dollar people spend on property tax goes to the city. The rest gets distributed to other entities, such as the county, schools, fire services, and libraries.
Caffrey added that the money people pay in sales tax is similarly distributed. Only 95 cents of every $10.30 people spend on sales tax goes to the city. Cities are very limited in ways they can increase revenue. She said that in every city, at every income level, people want more services than there is money for. Her first fiscal priority is to make sure that existing commitments and debts are covered.
The discussion with the council asked them to prioritize what the city should put its limited resources into in the next two years. Expanding public safety staffing to meet community needs, as well as strengthening traffic and pedestrian safety were up there. It was also mentioned that the city should be utilizing modern technology to more affordably help with both these needs.
Another potential priority was building the capacity for public communications and community engagement. Mayor Yoshiko Grace Matsui thought that this was important enough to hire someone dedicated to this role. Deputy Mayor Gene Achziger said the city will be facing real issues in the next few years, and needs to be able to communicate effectively with the public.
Councilmember Harry Steinmetz thought there was already a good level of communication, and that it was more important to balance the fund reserves. Councilmembers Pierre Blosse and Jeremy Nutting concurred, adding that it was a fiscal liability to have weak reserves in an uncertain economy.
Councilmember Nutting felt that the permitting process, which was notoriously bad for a long time but had been getting better, has gotten worse in recent years. He said it was so bad that developers don’t want to work on projects in the city. He thought revamping the permit process should be a high priority. Councilmember Blosse said permitting is the number one complaint he hears from the public.
Deputy Mayor Achziger pushed back, asking if the bad reputation Des Moines has regarding the permitting process is based on the current, actual process, or was it residual, based on past performance that has since been improved.
There will be a community budget town hall meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18. On Sept. 12 the council will hear a preliminary budget presentation. Public hearings on the biennial budget will take place on Oct. 29 and Nov. 12, with adoption to follow that second hearing.
