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Astoria council adopts $81 million fiscal 2025–26 budget and approves property tax rate
Summary
The City Council approved an $81 million budget for fiscal year 2025–26, set the property tax collection rate and authorized payment of the Astoria Library general obligation bond. Staff flagged a planned half-time engineering position to address permitting backlog.
The Astoria City Council on June 2 adopted the fiscal year 2025–26 budget and approved the city’s property tax collection rate.
City Manager Scott Spence presented the proposed budget, which totals just over $81 million and covers general city services and enterprise funds including water, sewer, stormwater and streets. The council adopted the budget and authorized collection at a rate of $8.1738 per $1,000 of assessed value and approved collecting $642,975 for a general‑obligation library bond payment for the Astoria Library renovation project.
Spence noted the budget process included three budget-committee meetings and that a minor correction increased the cemetery irreducible fund by $6,000. The council also discussed staff capacity: Spence recommended hiring a half‑time position in the engineering division to address a backlog of development permits. He said the position would be funded from contingency and not change the total budget.
The budget resolution passed on a voice and roll‑call vote after a brief public hearing; councilors voted in the affirmative.
Spence said the budget reflects ongoing demand for development review and public works services and that the city is pursuing a development‑review audit to improve permitting timeliness. He asked council to anticipate staff recruiting for the engineering part‑time role so permitting coordination could move forward.
The action authorizes bond payments and the property tax rate that will be used for collection in the coming fiscal year and directs staff to proceed with the audit and staffing as described.
