BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- The Bellingham City Council passed a measure last night setting new spending targets in hopes of erasing the city's budget deficit over the next two years.

Council Finance Committee Chair Michael Lilliquist says the goal is to minimize the deficit in 2013 and eliminate it in 2014.



He says the new targets are not budgets "locked in stone." the new spending targets will now be incorporated into the budgeting guidelines that the Finance Department sends to the various department heads in the city.

With employment costs expected to grow, Finance Director John Carter says the targets will require cuts in some level of the city's operations.