The Bonney Lake City Council Tuesday night passed the city’s biennial budget amendment including use of fund balance to cover a gap in expenditures and revenues, but inserted a novel provision to require the administration to come back for council approval when the expected revenue number is reached.

The provision, adopted 5-2 as an amendment to the city’s budget plan, was proposed as “plan b” by Deputy Mayor Dan Swatman who has been focused on a zero-balanced budget.

The administration requested use of approximately $400,000 in fund balance to cover the expected gap. The council in 2010 approved approximately $600,000 in fund balance over the two-year budget period, split into $400,000 in 2011 and $200,000 for 2012. However, due to higher-than-expected revenues and internal belt-tightening, the administration did not use any of the fund balance in 2011 and expect to finish the year approximately $160,000 in the black.

But Swatman this month proposed to balance the city’s budget next year through increased revenue projections and additional cuts of approximately $200,000 and no use of fund balance.

An amendment to enact Swatman’s budget was pulled off the table during the meeting for a lack of support. Most council members, led by Councilmember Jim Rackley said it was too late in the process to do this for next year and chose to stay with the budget as enacted.

Members also said the city’s fund balance of more than $2 million was designed for these type of situations.

Swatman next offered a new proposal: providing for the spending, but requiring the administration to come before the council to request the additional funding when the estimated revenue expenditure of $12,886,038.

The deputy mayor called it a “legislative lever” to highlight the issue and “draw a line” so the council can see where the spending begins to outpace the revenues.

“I’m just trying to show some fiscal restraint,” Swatman said.

“I don’t see a need for this,” countered Rackley, who again said using the fund balance was the right thing to do in extraordinary economic times, though beginning with the 2013-14 biennium, he supports a balanced budget.

Councilmember Donn Lewis joined Rackley in voting against the amendment. Lewis said he also supports moving forward with a balanced budget in the next cycle, but felt it was too late to begin messing with the numbers in the budget.

With the passage of Swatman’s amendment, the council passed the mid-biennial budget amendment by a vote of 6-1 with Councilmember Dan Decker the lone “no” vote.