Orange council reviews budget, eyes one-time uses for roughly $1.3 million Invista payment

Orange — At a February 2025 City Council budget workshop, staff reviewed the adopted fiscal year 2025 general fund and the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and outlined how an unbudgeted payment of about $1.3 million from Invista could be used for one-time needs and reserves.

The discussion, led by Mister Coombs (staff member), centered on three main general-fund revenue sources — sales tax, payments in lieu of taxes under industrial district agreements (IDA), and property tax — and on a projection that total general-fund revenue for 2025 would be about $27 million, down from roughly $29–30 million in earlier years. Coombs emphasized the numbers presented were projections: “If we can grow our sales tax, we can shrink the other sources of revenue,” he said.

Why it matters: council members said the decision matters for property-tax policy, department services and one-time capital repairs. Staff recommended setting aside part of the Invista payment to preserve the option of lowering the property-tax rate in future budgets, while allocating smaller amounts to immediate needs such as vehicles, facility repairs, library materials and community projects.

Key figu…