The City of St. Helens Urban Renewal Agency on Wednesday adopted Resolution UR-11 to approve the agency's fiscal year 2025-26 budget, including a declaration of tax increment and related appropriations.

The vote to adopt the budget passed unanimously. Councilor Russ Hubbard, Councilor Gunderson, Mayor Jennifer Massey, Councilor Sandeep and Council President Jessica Chilton recorded ayes during the roll call, and the motion carried.

The measure was introduced as "a resolution of the City of St. Helens Urban Renewal Agency adopting the budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, making appropriations, declaring the tax increment and collecting the maximum amount of the division of the tax." (Resolution UR-11.)

Public comment at the hearing focused on the size of the agency's contingency and the budget's underlying assumptions. A resident who spoke at the meeting said the contingency looked disproportionate and criticized basing the budget on a development the commenter said may not occur. "When you have a budget that has about a $100,000 and you have a contingency of 600 and some thousand, that's not a contingency. That's like a slush fund," the resident said. The same speaker added the agency should not "run on dreams" and said, "The fact of the matter is the urban renewal agency will be in big trouble if this project does not happen." Those statements were offered as public comment and not as agency findings.

City Manager John Walsh described the agency's financial approach in brief administrative remarks after the vote. "We're in a savings mode'we are not spending money so that we can make our debt service payment in 3 months when we begin," Walsh said. He said staff and financial consultants assumed a low-growth scenario and that the plan was intended to preserve the agency's ability to meet upcoming debt service obligations.

No ordinance or change to the tax-increment financing structure was proposed at the hearing beyond the resolution adopting the budget; the resolution itself makes the appropriations and declares the tax increment as provided in the document adopted by the agency.

The agency closed the public hearing after the vote and moved to the administrator's report. Staff indicated they will continue to work with financial consultants and monitor the agency's ability to meet debt-service payments while holding reserves.

Resolution UR-11 is effective per the agency action taken at the June 18 meeting; staff said they are in a conservative fiscal posture to preserve capacity for debt-service payments.