SEQUIM — Annual budgeting may become less of a crystal ball effort in the future for the City Council and its staff.

Council members set in motion Tuesday a plan to begin looking at future spending and revenues as soon as the 2003 budget is finalized.

The council’s desire for more budget planning arose from discussions of how to keep up with road maintenance. Or how to do any of it.

Councilman John Beitzel said the city’s budget process is “done in a vacuum” because it only looks at one year at a time.

“I would like a better understanding of what we are subscribing to,” Beitzel said.

City Manager Bill Elliott called the budget “just a system of numbers” lacking real meaning.

“We have a cash system where we buy something, pay for it and we’re done with it,” he said.

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The rest of the story appears in the Thursday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.