Staff outlines FY budget assumptions, TIF/UR balance and potential funding for trails, ball fields and Highway 20 match

City finance staff delivered an updated FY budget at the work session, outlining revenue assumptions based on maintaining the current city levy and presenting transfers, multi-year assumptions and identified cushions available for capital projects.

Marcy told council she kept the levy flat in the base scenario and that, because property valuations rose, the city could see additional revenue without increasing the levy. Staff identified a roughly $237,000 cushion in certain funds that could be used for change orders, ball-field work or the city’s share of Highway 20 safety improvements. Marcy also noted that the cap court lift station would be SRF-funded if that project proceeds, and therefore not yet included in operating expense lines.

Council asked for clearer before-and-after fund-balance reporting and multi-year modeling. Staff and council also reviewed a prior commitment of $50,000 to the local business alliance (PEDC/Alliance), with about $30,700 spent and approximately $19,291 remaining; staff could not find a written development agreement specifying the terms, and recommended a resolution that would define allowable uses and reporting expectations before releasing the remainder.

On capital priorities, council discussed options to use reserves or short internal loans to cover time-sensitive projects and whether to pursue a capital-project levy for larger work; references were made to the constraints and administrative burden of launching a voter-authorized capital levy versus using existing levy capacity for employee benefits or debt service. Staff will add fund-balance columns, prioritize ball-field upgrade budgeting after receiving a needs list, and return with refined levy and multi-year forecasts.