Mosier council outlines 2016/17 goals, identifies $8,300 in near-term savings and revenue options

During a goal-setting session on Feb. 3, City Manager Kathy Fitzpatrick reviewed staff materials and asked the council to prioritize balancing general-fund expenditures for 2016/17. Fitzpatrick reported that external funding (grants and technical assistance) for Mosier since 2014 totals approximately $1,532,000 and said several projects funded by those sources will begin in 2016.

Council and staff identified a package of near-term expense reductions with estimated savings of about $8,300, exceeding the stated target of $8,000. Proposed cuts and operational changes included withdrawing certain memberships (estimated $1,000), reducing training/education ($3,500), cutting office supplies ($2,000), moving spring budget hours to comp time ($800), folding planning hours into the City Manager salary (estimated $1,000), and assigning some landscape duties to the maintenance worker (savings not yet determined). The Council also discussed new revenue options: coin-operated toilets, volunteer-managed parking fee collection and online season passes, a transient room tax, designated hiker/biker campsites at Rock Creek, cemetery fundraisers and a possible 3% marijuana tax on the ballot. Fitzpatrick noted property tax revenue increases of about $650 per new house and identified the Mosier Bluffs and Tanawashee subdivisions as a combined source of 76 future lots.