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Council adopts $69.1 million budget; referendum set for June 1, 2020
Summary
After a presentation by the mayor that detailed a $10 million starting deficit and steps to reduce it, the council approved a $69,146,155 FY26–27 budget by voice vote and set the referendum for 06/01/2020; the mayor said the plan reduces a projected 26% tax hike to about 6%.
The council voted to approve a $69,146,155 FY26–27 city budget after the mayor outlined steps taken to close a reported $10,000,000 budget gap and to reduce the immediate tax impact on residents.
The mayor told the council that when the administration took office it faced a $10 million deficit and that prior budgets had relied on revenues that were not realized. "We started with a $10,000,000 deficit," the mayor said, and described steps taken to avoid a steep tax increase.
He said the administration implemented staffing and efficiency cuts (including more than $100,000 in staff-cost reductions and eliminating a $20,000 mayoral car allowance), and noted an infusion of roughly $4.5 million in new state funds — about $3.25 million of which the mayor described as one-time emergency aid — that helped narrow the gap.
"We cut that $10,000,000 tax hike down to $1,000,000," the mayor said, and added that the anticipated tax-rate increase had fallen from a possible 26% down to about 6%, which he said equated to roughly $28 a month for the average single-family household.
The mayor also said approving a two-year budget now would save the average single-family household about $200 compared with postponing the decision and deferring costs into next year. He noted ongoing public outreach, including three prior budget presentations and an additional session scheduled for the senior center.
The chair called for a motion to approve the fiscal-year budget of $69,146,155; the motion and second were recorded and the council approved the budget by voice vote with no oppositions or abstentions noted in the transcript. The chair then moved under the city charter to set the referendum date; the council set the referendum for Monday, 06/01/2020, and a council member confirmed the budget presentation and referendum information would be posted on the city website.
What comes next: The approved budget moves to the scheduled referendum. The transcript records voice votes and recorded motions, but does not include roll-call tallies or named vote counts for the budget vote.
