Universal City opens public hearing on FY 2026 budget and sets 2025 tax rate at $0.53

Universal City on the evening of the council meeting opened a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and moved forward a final tax-rate schedule that sets the citywide 2025 tax rate at $0.53 per $100 of valuation.

City finance staff presented the budget highlights to the council, saying proposed general fund revenues are about $20,532,029 with tax revenue accounting for about 78 percent of that total. The staff presentation said no new full-time positions are requested for FY 2026, the cost-of-living adjustment is included for existing staff, and health-care costs are expected to increase substantially. The presentation listed deferred projects (a space-needs assessment, Summit Park and skate-park planning) and reductions in other line items. The budget also shows an $800,000 balance remaining in the venue-tax fund pending council direction.

The budget presentation matters because the tax rate and departmental allocations determine whether essential public services such as police, fire and public works can be maintained without further reductions. In the public hearing, several residents and business representatives praised the staff work but urged caution about continued long-term cuts to the tax rate.

During public comment, former Mayor John Williams and others praised a city housing-assessment program and urged prudence in setting rates. Commenters and several council members repeatedly framed the proposed change as modest in household terms: staff said a one-cent change in the tax rate equals about $200,000 for the city and that the proposed total rate change works out to roughly $30to45 a year on a $300,000 home, depending on the calculation used.

Council discussion returned repeatedly to the venue tax and the golf course. Council member Raval proposed placing an item on a future agenda to reduce the venue tax rate (currently tied to venue and golf-course funding) and to adopt a local sales-and-use tax to provide additional maintenance-and-repair revenue for municipal streets; Raval said the change would reallocate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to the general fund and help protect the golf course. The mayor and council agreed to add Raval's proposal to a future agenda; council voted on the procedural request and recorded that the motion carried.

On formal action during the meeting, the council recorded a motion to set the 2025 tax rate at a total of $0.53, comprised of a maintenance-and-operations (M&O) component of $0.442 and a debt-service (I&S) component of $0.088. An amendment to lower the total rate to $0.5225 was offered but failed on a roll-call vote; the main motion for a $0.53 total rate then passed on final vote.

Council members debated trade-offs throughout the discussion: several members noted long-term cuts in the citytax rate over prior years and warned that repeated reductions could force abrupt future service cuts. Other council members emphasized that the proposed increase is modest relative to rising costs and recommended preserving services. Several speakers noted that certain homeowners 65 and older are tax-exempt or have frozen values under state rules, which affects how much revenue the city can capture from that demographic.

Also during the meeting, the council considered a revision to the citypurchase policy that raises the threshold for informal procurement from $50,000 to $100,000 to align with a change passed by the state legislature (effective Sept. 1). Council asked for clarifying language during second reading to make clear how the city intends to use cooperative procurement contracts (co-ops) and how aggregate thresholds are applied across projects.

Next steps: the council has scheduled the formal adoption steps required under state law (public notices and a final vote on the budget and tax rate at upcoming meetings). The venue-tax/sales-tax proposal introduced as a council request will appear on a future agenda for fuller consideration and formal action.