Longview previews FY 2025-26 budget; manager proposes 6% pay raise plus $1,000 and a 2.3¢ tax-rate increase

City Manager Roland McPhee presented the City of Longview’s proposed fiscal 2025-26 budget at a special called council meeting July 17, recommending a 6% pay adjustment for employees plus a $1,000 salary increase and a proposed 2.3-cent increase to the property tax rate. The council approved a resolution to set a public hearing on the budget for Aug. 21 at 5:30 p.m.

McPhee framed the proposal around workforce retention and service delivery, telling the council, “we are the government that actually touches everyone in this community.” He said the revised compensation package was changed from an initial proposal of 6.5% plus $500 to 6% plus $1,000 to increase help for lower-wage employees while reducing the immediate tax impact.

The city manager explained the tax-rate change in concrete terms: using the reported average home value of $223,311, he said the proposed 2.3¢ increase would translate to about $4.28 per month, or roughly $51 per year, for the typical homeowner. McPhee and staff said the 2.3¢ figure follows additional adjustments and revenue forecasts and noted a possible separate, voter-timed business personal property tax exemption planned for November that could affect FY27 revenue.

The proposed budget also includes utility rate changes. McPhee proposed a water-rate increase — described in the presentation as a 21¢ per-month rise to the 5/8-inch meter minimum charge and a 14¢ per-thousand-gallon increase over the first 2,000 gallons — and no change to wastewater rates. He said a household using 6,000 gallons would see about a $0.77 per-month increase on that bill, which the presentation called about a 1.5% change. Sanitation rates were proposed to rise $1.01 per month (a 5.4% increase), with staff attributing most of the sanitation increase to higher labor and maintenance costs.

McPhee walked the council through workforce data the administration used to justify the compensation package: more than one-quarter of city employees reportedly have less than two years’ service, 46% have less than five years, and the average employee age was cited as 34. He said those numbers affect retention and that the city has made multi-year cultural and training investments — including management development classes, servant-leadership training, and cross-department “challenge teams” — intended to improve retention and succession. McPhee said the city’s management team reduced departmental funding requests by nearly $2 million during budget development.

Council members pressed staff on details and alternatives. Questions and comments focused on whether a portion of the $1,000 could be structured as a retention payment timed later in the year, how overtime trends (especially in the fire department) are changing, and when the city last used an outside firm for a pay study. Finance staff and Human Resources said the last full market pay plan benchmarking was done by Public Sector Personnel Consultants (SPC) about three to four years ago and that SPC is the firm the city has used since 2008 for formal market comparisons.

Staff and council also discussed public safety staffing and overtime. McPhee and Chief Grimes noted the fire department has been hiring and is nearing full staffing; council members observed that fire overtime is driven by minimum-staffing requirements for 24/48-hour shifts and that those staffing patterns make overtime expensive. Finance staff reported year-to-date reductions in fire overtime compared with the same point last year and said the proposed FY26 budget shows a lower overtime projection than the prior year when the cost of the proposed raises is excluded.

Angela Cohen, director of finance, told the council that state statute requires a public hearing on the annual proposed budget and that the hearing will be Aug. 21 at 5:30 p.m. The council then approved a resolution setting that date; Councilmember Ray Wade made the motion and the mayor called for the vote, with the mayor saying “all in favor, please say aye” before declaring the resolution approved.

McPhee and staff said more detailed fee memos and the full budget book would be provided to council members before the hearing. The manager also flagged external cost pressures cited in the presentation — higher asphalt and energy costs and rising raw-water contract prices — as ongoing budget drivers.

The council’s next scheduled budget discussion meetings were listed during the session; staff said they will continue to supply monthly financials and memos requested by council members ahead of the Aug. 21 hearing.