Tracking the General Fund:
How the City Gets and Spends

General Fund - Background

The City deposits basic taxes and fees it collects into the General Fund. These funds are the City's most flexible revenues and can be spent in support of any general government purpose. The General Fund is the primary source of funding for functions such as police, fire, courts, parks and libraries. Revenues from state and federal sources supplement these resources, and such outside funding is particularly important for departments such as human services and transportation. However, these supplementary sources are not reflected in the graphs shown here. These graphs also exclude the revenues earned by Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light from utility rates. Rate revenues can only be used for utility purposes and are not included in the General Fund.

Uses of Revenue

With regard to uses, note that police, fire and public safety (including courts) use more than 50 percent of the General Fund’s total resources. Parks and Libraries are another significant share of the total expenditure "pie."

Use of General Fund Revenues - 2008

Sources of Revenue

In terms of sources, note that property taxes, business and occupation taxes and retail sales taxes constitute more than 60 percent of total General Fund revenues. When utility taxes are included, this total grows to more than 75 percent.

The single largest source of City revenue is the property tax; it makes up 25 percent of total General Fund resources. One of the on-going challenges for the City is that Initiative 747 limits the annual growth of this key revenue source to just 1 percent - well below the rate of inflation and below the rate at which the cost of City services is increasing.

General Fund Revenue Sources - 2008