Independence budget briefing: staff recommends near-term steps as general fund faces substantial drawdown

City Manager West and finance staff presented an overview Wednesday of the city’s fiscal outlook and short-term budget choices as Independence prepares its 2025–26 budget. West said staff will present a balanced budget to the budget committee beginning March 31 and asked the council for direction on staffing, program reductions and possible revenue steps.

West said the city’s general fund balance is small relative to peer cities and that, under status-quo assumptions, the city will draw down the general fund to a potentially dangerous level. “It’s looking like we’re gonna reduce general fund fund dollars by another half million dollars,” West told the council, summarizing staff forecasts. He said that achieving a structurally balanced budget for 2025–26 will likely require a combination of reduced expenditures and new revenue sources.

Staff identified several near-term options and work streams:

- Combine museum and library operations: Staff and directors of both institutions have discussed co-locating collections and programming to reduce operating costs. Presenters said combining the museum and library into a single building and selling the existing museum site could reduce operating and maintenance costs and eliminate a mortgage payment; staff said sale proceeds would be one-time revenue and cautioned it would not cover long-term structural gaps alone.

- Event staffing and tourism fund: The city’s downtown manager, who currently coordinates Independence Days and other events, plans to leave later in 2025. Staff outlined the tourism and events fund (supported largely by the transient lodging tax, or TLT) and asked whether the council wants staff to keep the event under city management or pursue community partners. The council directed staff to continue talks with the Independence Downtown Association (IDA) and the Chamber of Commerce about transferring Independence Days to a community organization and to plan to remove Independence Days from the city’s operations budget in the 2025–26 cycle (the July 1, 2025 budget), should the transfer proceed.

- Fees, levies and utility billing options: Staff reviewed potential revenue tools discussed during public outreach, including fees, a local levy and utility-bill surcharges. The publicly discussed “public safety” fee on utility bills and other potential utility fees generated extensive public comment; staff emphasized that a utility fee would be a policy choice and that respondents voiced resistance to new fees. Staff also described a “equal payment” utility-billing approach used by some utilities to smooth customer payments though it does not change annual revenue.

- Asset disposition and other one-time revenues: Staff provided estimates for several city-owned properties as potential sales (museum building estimate $825,000; old pool site $210,000; other sites with variable or not-specified estimates); staff emphasized property appraisals and market timing are uncertainties and sale revenue would be one-time funding, not a structural fix.

- Cybersecurity and facilities upgrades: Staff presented estimates for upgrading IT and cybersecurity at the event center and city facilities (estimates in the memo ranged from about $77,500 to $123,000 for IT upgrades at a facility) and said these were policy decisions rather than required immediate budget cuts.

- Staffing levels and program reductions: Staff cautioned the council that further cuts to core staff would reduce services. West outlined that previous staffing reductions removed “muscle” from operations and that additional cuts could harm essential functions and long-term economic development capacity.

Public outreach findings: Staff summarized outreach and a 228‑respondent survey plus an interactive public event. Library and parks consistently ranked highest in constituents’ priority lists; the museum received substantially more support from respondents who favored department preservation and was often listed as a candidate for reductions by other respondents. At the interactive event, attendees favored a separate taxing district and levies over immediate service cuts.

Staff asked the council for direction on several near-term issues: whether to continue pursuing a sale or consolidation of the museum building with the library; whether to continue working with community organizations on Independence Days; and whether to consider utility-fee options or other revenue measures when compiling a balanced budget for 2025–26. West framed the immediate need as: staff will prepare a balanced budget for review but needs council guidance about which of the outlined options to pursue in more detail.

Ending

Council members signaled support for continued work on consolidation of the museum and library and for pursuing community partners for Independence Days. Staff will include those options in the budget package delivered to the budget committee, identify potential one‑time proceeds from asset sales where feasible, and present specific budget tradeoffs for council and budget committee decisions.