Moses Lake presents 2026 budget priorities; audit catch-up and ARPA spending highlighted

Moses Lake city staff presented the fourth and final budget workshop for the proposed 2026 budget, highlighting an audit catch-up plan, an ongoing ERP implementation, proposed transfers to reserves, and a schedule of upcoming public hearings.

Debbie, the finance presenter, told the council the finance department is working with an outside consultant to convert the city9s financials from GAAP to cash basis to simplify and accelerate scheduled audits for 202293 2024. She said the conversion is expected to reduce audit costs and allow the city to file those years quickly with auditors once the conversion is complete. "As soon as that is done, then we should be able to quickly roll into reporting those financials to the auditors," Debbie said.

Staff also outlined plans to resume the Tyler Technologies ERP implementation (financials, HR and payroll) in early 2026, with the goal of completing the financials portion by October 2026 and HR/payroll going live in January 2027. Utility billing implementation is underway, with a planned 2027 go-live…