It’s Budget Season: Both the City of Corvallis and Benton County have hosted several budget meetings over the past week, and these meetings will continue as the budget process begins wrapping up by the end of the week. Here is an update on where they stand.
City: The City of Corvallis is facing two major obstacles in this year’s budget, according to City Manager Mark Shepherd, a lack of past planning and fiscal strategy as well as inflation. The city will host a final work session today, May 10, and ‘if needed’ a final meeting the following day.
“The Budget Commission meetings are going well so far. There are quite a few of them, as you can see on the calendar, but they are running smoothly,” said Public Information Officer Patrick Rollens in an email.
This is the second year that the city has been budgeting for capital projects at full cost. “As we decide to go forward with a project it’s important to show that we have budgeted for the full price of the project,” said Finance Director Ryan Seidl.
Among the projects included in the budget are upgrades to several city facilities. The current budget dedicates $200,000 of General Fund resources. There is also $600,000 that has already been assigned to the New Facilities Investment Reserve from the unappropriated fund balance.
“Things that are not changing, the standard revenue and expense section and the fund layout will all stay the same,” said Seidl. “Behind the scenes there will be no change to tax structure. There will also be no change to the local tax levy, I know it’s coming up on the ballot, but that won’t go into effect until 2025.”
In November, voters in Corvallis will look at a renewal of the city’s operating levy that would continue funding social services and livability options provided by the Library and Parks and Recreation. The levy is a straight renewal, so no new taxes are proposed, just a continuation of what everyone currently pays.
The city is anticipating wrapping up budget negotiations by the end of the week. The total proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024 is $260,820,300, which reflects an increase of $18,142,600 (7.47 %) from the prior year adopted budget.
County: Benton County will host their next budget committee meeting on May 11 and then shortly after will begin deliberation on the proposed budget.
“The current operating level for the county budget has increased by approximately 13.7% as the result of extraordinary high inflation, increases in bargained salaries, increases in debt service cost related to the financing of a portion of the new courthouse and district attorney’s office, and increases from county growth related to management, facilities management, and central support services,” said Benton County Chief Financial Officer Rick Crager.
In total, the proposed budget increased by 46.7% from the 2021-23 adopted budget. The main contributor to the total fund growth is expenses related to the development and construction of facilities for the Justice System Improvement Program (JSIP), or Measure 2-140, that voters are currently deciding on. Ballots were mailed late last month, and are due on May 16.
“In addition to current operating level growth, the county budget has an additional increase of $135.6 million of which $128.2 million is contingent upon Measure 2-140 and pending state legislative requests being approved. Should the measure and proposals fail, these investments will be backed out of the budget,” said Crager.
According to Crager, the goal is to complete deliberations by Thursday night and to approve the FY 23-25 budget. However, if necessary, there will be time scheduled on Friday to complete the process. The total proposed budget is $604.2 million.
By Jennifer Warner
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