Shenandoah council adopts budget, raises tax rate to fund police pay parity

Shenandoah — The Shenandoah City Council on Sept. 10 adopted its FY2025–26 operating budget and approved ad valorem tax rates the council said are necessary to implement a police pay-parity plan and add a detective position.

The council voted 4–1 to approve the budget, which includes three general-fund capital projects (an HVAC replacement for city hall, entrance landscaping and a virtual-server replacement) and funding assumptions based on a recommended maintenance-and-operations rate of 0.0796 per $100 of taxable value and a debt-service rate of 0.1025. Combined, those figures match the council’s adopted tax-rate structure for the year.

Council and staff said the primary driver of the tax-rate increase was the police pay-parity initiative to retain and recruit officers. Finance Director Lisa (presenting the budget) told the council that public safety — fire and police — accounts for more than 61% of general-fund expenditures and that market pressures had suddenly increased salary requirements for law enforcement. "If you don't compete, you're going to lose officers," Lisa said during her presentation. Council supporters argued that failing to act would worsen…