UPDATE:

The City of Renton has delayed the vote on the West Hill annexation until November 2012 because of uncertainty surrounding a key source of state revenue needed to provide services there. The Renton City Council voted 6-1 Monday on a recommendation from the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development that the city change the election date from Feb.14. Now, West Hill will vote on whether to annex to Renton in the Nov. 6, 2012, general election.

The original story follows:

The City of Renton may delay the vote on the West Hill annexation until November 2012 because of uncertainty surrounding a key source of state revenue needed to provide services there.

The Renton City Council Monday night will act on a recommendation from the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development that the city change the election date from Feb. 14.

The King County Council had yet to formally place the annexation issue on the Feb. 14 ballot, called for in an earlier resolution adopted by the City Council.

City officials have spent the last several months trying to figure out how to pay for a West Hill annexation from numerous local, state and federal sources.

“The city’s most recent financial analysis of the area indicates that it will cost much more to provide services to the West Hill area than revenues from the area will generate,” Alex Pietsch, the administrator of the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development, wrote in a staff report to the City Council.

Much of that gap is filled by a credit the City of Renton would receive against the state’s share of the sales tax.

However, Gov. Chris Gregoire is proposing in her supplemental budget to eliminate the sales-tax credit for all future annexations, including West Hill. That credit has been critical to helping Renton and other cities pay for services in newly annexed areas.

In the case of West Hill, the sales-tax credit amounts to more than $2 million year. Without that credit, the estimated operating deficit in West Hill grows to more than $4 million, according to Pietsch.

Pietsch indicated in his staff report that city officials have received assurances from the city’s legislative delegation and others in the legislature that they would work to restore the funding. But it’s uncertain whether those efforts would prove successful before the Feb. 14 vote, he wrote.

The recommendation to place the ballot on the Nov. 6, 2012, ballot will go before the council at its Monday meeting at 7 p.m. at council chambers in City Hall, 1055 S. Grady Way.