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City finance director warns of multi-year shortfall as council raises sanitation franchise fee
Summary
City Finance Director Vicki Van Burren told the NAB Board 4 the city faces multi-year revenue shortfalls driven by weak sales-tax growth; council approved a sanitation franchise-fee increase from 8% to 14% that yields about $5.5 million annually, while the current budget used $10 million in one-time funds and $16 million in expense reductions to close a roughly $25 million gap.
Vicki Van Burren, the City of Reno’s finance director, gave a detailed update on the city’s budget and long-term fiscal outlook, saying the current total city budget is “right at a billion dollars” and that the general fund is about $350 million.
Van Burren told the Neighborhood Advisory Board that the city’s largest revenue sources — consolidated (mostly sales) tax and property tax — now make up roughly 60% of the general fund and that slow revenue growth since fiscal 2023 has produced a multi-year shortfall. “We had a $25 million gap this year that we bridged with about $10 million of one-time funds and $16 million of expense reductions,” she said.
That pattern, Van Burren said, creates a compounding problem: revenue that is lost in one year reduces the base for future growth. She noted the city uses fund accounting, has roughly 1,500 full‑time positions across funds (about 1,200 in the general fund) and that salary and benefits account for about 81% of general-fund expenditures.
Board members pressed Van Burren on how the city can respond. She said there are three broad options — reduce expenses, increase revenues, or both — and that the administration is pursuing a mix. Among the actions already approved, the City Council raised the sanitation franchise fee from 8% to 14% on Feb. 11, which Van Burren said will produce about $5.5 million in recurring revenue.
Van Burren described other budget tools under consideration, including a vacancy-savings assumption for next year’s budget, ongoing zero‑based review of departmental requests, targeted use of one‑time funds for capital maintenance, and potential property sales where appropriate. She also described the city’s debt profile (roughly $500 million outstanding, including recent bond financing for sewer infrastructure) and said the city’s bond rating has improved in recent years.
Board members asked whether capital-improvement projects could be frozen to preserve cash; Van Burren said many large capital projects are funded from dedicated sources or grants and are not general-fund discretionary items. On frozen staffing, she clarified that “frozen” positions are roles that exist on organizational charts but are not funded in the budget year.
The next formal steps in the budget calendar, she said, include a full council budget review on May 6 and a public hearing on May 20. Van Burren said budget documents, audits and the digital budget book are available on the city site for those who want more detail.
The board did not take a formal vote on city budget policy at the meeting; the discussion served as an informational briefing and a prompt for further public input at council hearings.
