A key part of Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson’s 2011-12 budget proposal presented last month to the City Council hinged on a big assumption:

That, by the end of the year, the city would have ironed out contract agreements with its various employee bargaining units to resolve any outstanding pay restructuring issues and win labor’s agreement to across-the-board city wage freezes.

Anderson is relying on the savings from wage freezes, as well as eliminating 79 vacant city positions, to help him balance his $401 million budget — a spending plan some $40 million less than the one the council …

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