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South Weber council reviews conservative FY26 draft projecting $13.7M in revenue
Summary
At a Feb. 8 budget retreat, staff presented a conservative FY26 draft budget of about $13.7 million, explaining key revenue assumptions — a 3% property-tax growth assumption while holding the rate, conservative sales-tax estimates amid gravel-pit declines, and charges-for-service comprising roughly half of revenue.
Staff presented the draft FY26 budget and emphasized the numbers were preliminary and intended to spur discussion rather than finalize policy. City Manager Dave Larson said the retreat “is the beginning of a process, not the end of a process,” and finance staff gave a line-item view of funds and projected revenues.
Brett, the finance presenter, summarized cash-on-hand and fund balances: “So this is the cash available as of December 31,” and said the city’s aggregate cash rose from just over $15 million last year to about $16 million this year. Larson and Brett stressed that aggregate totals mask many restricted pots of money — for example, enterprise funds (water, sewer, storm drain, sanitation) are legally ring-fenced and are not available for general operations.
Staff told the council the draft budget assumes a 3% increase in total revenue driven primarily by property-tax valuation growth while the council would hold the property-tax rate. Larson framed that choice as a policy decision: holding the rate captures valuation-driven revenue growth without increasing the rate paid by property owners. Council members pressed for clarity on operating versus capital spending and asked for future slides that separate operating maintenance, capital projects and debt service so they can see what is driving the year-to-year changes.
Next steps: staff will take committee direction in March to analyze departmental budgets and the 15 supplemental requests, then return with recommendations and more refined projections based on county property-tax information and any newly available sales-tax data.
