City manager unveils FY2025-26 budget overview; proposed no-new-revenue tax rate and utility rate impacts outlined

City Manager James Erp presented an overview of the proposed fiscal 2025-26 budget and the council's upcoming schedule for budget workshops and hearings. The presentation summarized general fund operations, capital improvement projects, and proposed utility-rate changes needed to maintain fund solvency over the coming years.

Erp said the proposed property tax rate uses a no-new-revenue calculation (0.385928) and noted the certified valuation required trimming approximately $500,000 from an earlier draft before the meeting. He described a CIP spending plan that includes utility and transportation projects and identified planned debt issuances to complete large facility projects if council proceeds. On personnel, the proposal includes five new positions offset by three eliminated vacancies for a net increase of two FTEs; a 2.5 percent step increase for eligible employees is budgeted but no across-the-board COLA was included.

On utilities, the city's consultant recommended a multi-year rate path that would raise an average residential combined water/wastewater bill by about $14.62 per month in the initial adjustment; staff noted those rate increases were not yet built into the current utility revenue projections. Council scheduled a budget workshop for the coming week and set hearings for early September to adopt a final budget and tax rate. "I'm pleased to present an overview of this year's proposed budget," Erp said as he opened the staff presentation.