On Tuesday, the Pullman City Council met to discuss the current economic conditions, ideas for improvement of the city’s revenue and potential upgrades to Pullman Transit.

Economic conditions headlined the night’s agenda.

“It is the greatest recession since the Great Depression,” said Pullman City Supervisor John Sherman. “The (Washington) state treasury is expected to take a $284 million hit through 2011.” Finance Director Troy Woo, who is leaving to take a similar position in Lacey, delivered his final presentation discussing new figures of sales, property and utility taxes.

While property taxes have been fairly stable, the city’s sales tax experienced a decline, dropping 11.6 percent and 34.4 percent in sales tax from construction year-to-date, he said. Pullman’s sales tax is projected to bring in $448,000 less in 2009. He attributed much of the drop to the decrease of construction in the city.

“The current financial situation has worsened since the first quarter financial report, but it is not time to panic,” Woo said. “Sales tax will continue to be challenging, certainly when you look at construction.” Despite the poor 2009 Pullman sales tax figures, Woo said the construction of Wal-Mart will have a positive sales tax impact on the city. He said Wal-Mart recently announced the grand opening of their Pullman Supercenter on Bishop Boulevard in the fourth quarter of 2010, but the city will not experience significant sales tax growth until 2011.

Woo also emphasized WSU’s woes. He said the university will make reductions of $54 million in the next two years, though the impact of WSU’s budget situation will be delayed.

Pullman Transit Manager Rod Thornton made an appearance at Tuesday’s gathering to speak on behalf of the city’s bus system and promote the purchase of new buses, digital surveillance cameras and the implementation to the city of the Senior Shuttle.

Thornton proposed the purchase of one 35-foot and four 40-foot low-floor, diesel-powered buses from the Gillig Corporation at a cost of $1,960,890. The 35-foot bus would accommodate about 70 passengers and the 40-foot bus would pack about 90 passengers at maximum capacity. The five buses, which would not be completed in construction until March 2011, would run as express routes. All seven council members voted in favor of the purchase.

Councilman Francis Benjamin showed concern over the buses’ diesel-powered nature and questioned whether the city should go the hybrid route so as to reduce the carbon footprint.

“It’s my hope that this is the last diesel-powered package that we buy and move on to hybrids,” Thornton said.

The carbon emissions of the buses are rather low and Pullman’s carbon footprint is relatively small, he said.

Thornton also proposed the purchase of digital surveillance cameras for Pullman Transit buses. The installment of the 144 cameras, at a cost of $139,000, would largely be funded by stimulus money. Thornton said he hoped they would lead to reduced liability and greater safety.

All but one member of the council voted for the purchase of the surveillance system. Voting against the purchase, Councilman Keith Bloom cited the problematic and costly nature of the technology due to the requirement of storing large quantities of footage, since people who are injured have three years to file a lawsuit.

The final proposal by Thornton, which remains under consideration, is the creation of the Senior Shuttle dial-a-ride service. Thanking Thornton, Councilman Barney Waldrop praised the potential service and said the idea has seen interest by Pullman’s elderly community for some time.

Thornton also made an announcement that Pullman Transit will operate the North and South routes on July 4.