City work session lays out FY27 budget, levy at 14.58276 and CIP priorities

Speaker 1 (Presenter) led a city council work session to review the draft fiscal year 2027 budget, telling members staff will return Feb. 23 to ask them to approve the maximum levy numbers to send to the county and that the first public hearing on the budget will be March 23 with adoption scheduled for April 14. "That 14.58276, that is our total levy," Speaker 1 said when explaining the proposed levy rate.

The presentation laid out three linked pieces of the proposal: operating revenues and expenditures, an equipment-revolving plan for recurring large purchases, and a capital improvement plan (CIP) that staff expect to fund partly by issuing a proposed Series 2026 bond. Speaker 1 listed planned equipment purchases across departments — a police vehicle, fire bunker gear and a potential future attack truck, a library roof and cameras, playground replacements at Hattery Park, a cemetery mower and IT/admin software — and said departments maintain 15-year forecasts to smooth purchases over time.

Why it matters: the levy and bonding choices determine how much property owners pay and how the city funds projects. Speaker 1 used examples to illustrate the resident impact: a $100,000 residential property shown in staff worksheets (reassessed in that example to $110,000) would see city tax move from about $693 to $714 under the packet assumptions; a median-valued house in the city (staff identified a median valuation of $177,000) produced an illustrative city tax of $974 at the presented levy rate. Speaker 1 also said the debt-service levy was raised slightly to pre-fund the first bond payment while the overall levy edged down compared with last year.

Council members pressed technical questions about the CIP and specific projects. Speaker 3 said several street segments will require substantial reconstruction — naming 11th Street and N Avenue among others — and gave a contractor-based rough estimate of about $1,400,000 for three street segments ("I was a little conservative," Speaker 3 said) while warning additional engineering costs could add several hundred thousand dollars. Speaker 3 also flagged a persistent wastewater inflow-and-infiltration problem and identified an old trunk line along the creek as a likely cause, saying, "we think that's gonna be one of the issues... because of those animals," a comment made during the engineering discussion.

Staff reviewed fund-level choices and transfers: local-option sales tax and hotel/motel revenues are tracked in spreadsheets to allocate program shares; TIF calculations showed a negative $58,000 this year that staff plan to cover with TIF reserves rather than certifying the full downtown debt and reducing general-fund valuations. Speaker 1 explained that using reserves for some TIF debt minimises the immediate effect on general fund taxable valuation.

Bonding and schedule: staff presented a proposed Series 2026 bond schedule tied to the debt-service levy calculations. No formal motion or vote was taken at the work session; staff indicated they will return with the formal maximum-levy certification request and the public-hearing notice at the next meeting.

Questions and next steps: council members complimented the packet and asked clarifying questions about reserves, splash-pad/reserve assumptions and street access for large vehicles during construction. Speaker 1 said staff would proceed with the presented package, bring the maximum-levy certification to the Feb. 23 meeting for council approval, and run the required hearings in March and April.

The work session contained extensive department-level slides (police, fire, library, parks and rec, wastewater and water) showing accomplishments, revenue/expense comparisons and program priorities; staff said new financial software (myViewPoint) helps drill into line items and historical purchases. The session ended without formal action; the council will consider formal levy certification and related actions at upcoming meetings.