Tumwater council forwards 2026 budget amendment after public hearing; council schedules final vote July 21

The Tumwater City Council on July 7 held a public hearing on Ordinance O2026Dash00320252026, the first budget amendment for the 2025–2026 biennium, and voted unanimously to forward the measure to the council’s July 21 meeting with a recommendation to adopt.

Finance Director Troy Niemeyer described the amendment as largely a set of routine adjustments and one-time authorizations tied to capital and settlement-related transfers. "For 2025, this amendment adds $15,000 in revenue and $62,000 in expenditures," Niemeyer said. "For 2026, all funds combined, this increases revenues by about $1,300,000 and expenditures by about $5,000,000." He attributed most of the 2026 increase to the planned fire truck purchase, the earlier purchase of the lodge building and transfers of opioid-settlement funds.

Niemeyer told council members the general fund shows modest changes: a revenue decrease of about $10,000 for 2025 and a decrease of about $85,000 in general fund expenditures for 2025. For 2026 he said the general fund revenue would increase by about $36,000 and expenditures by about $975,000, "nearly all of that is for code enforcement and the transfer of the opioid funds," he said.

Council members asked several clarifying questions. In response to questions about a historic Gary Oak tree, Niemeyer said an initial maintenance estimate was about $25,000 but the single contractor response came in at roughly $75,000, creating a $50,000 shortfall and prompting staff to postpone the work until November for better conditions. On the fire truck, Niemeyer said the vehicle was ordered about three years ago, the first payment is due in July and delivery is expected around September; the city plans to use reserves in the levy fund to cover near-term payments rather than immediate long-term bonding.

Niemeyer also described the handling of opioid-settlement money, saying the city has been collecting those funds for "two or three years now" and that the amendment would authorize transfers to the county task force or opioid abatement council. He characterized the settlement fund balance as "around $375,400,000 dollars" as an approximate figure when discussing the larger pool of funds collected (amount as stated by the finance director).

After closing the hearing with no public testimony on the amendment, Council member Megan Sullivan moved to forward the ordinance to the July 21 council meeting with a recommendation to adopt; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

The forwarded ordinance will return to council on July 21 for final consideration. No final appropriations were adopted at the July 7 meeting; the action on July 7 was a referral to a subsequent meeting with a recommendation to adopt.