The Budget Committee held two meetings last week to go over a $42.3 million budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 for the City of Sweet Home.
Only one resident on the committee, Dawn Miller, showed up at the first meeting, April 30, and was appointed as committee chair. Also present was the City Council and city staff.
In his budget message, City Manager Jason Ogden said the budget was developed while keeping in mind the City Council Goals for the year. Some of those goals include improvements to public communication and cyber security, redeveloping the Santiam Feed Store property, evaluating the former City Hall for future use or disposition, renovating east wing of the current City Hall, preserving Weddle Bridge and reduce downtown commercial vacancies.
Concerning street repair, the city plans on implementing a pavement preservation strategy by sealing and maintaining 65% of the streets that are currently in good to fair condition while exploring funding opportunities for better improvements. Also, the Mahler Wastewater Treatment Plan and Mountain View multi-use path projects are expected to begin this year.
The proposed budget’s General Fund has an increase of $1.32 million from the current year due to new grant funding and consolidation of services. The city increased its contingency reserves, and capital investments next year will include library development, park improvements and Weddle Bridge support.
“We are also investing in local partnerships and community events that build civic pride and connection,” Ogden stated in the message.
Finance Director Matt Brown highlighted the two most important questions when looking at the budget. First, does the budget balance, and second, does the budget reflect the city’s goals and values?
“All of the programs, services and staffing that is put into the budget is with the intention to achieve the goals and the values of the City Council’s goals,” he said.
Responding to a question by Councilor Angelita Sanchez, Brown explained why the proposed budget is $55.4 million less than the current budget. The current budget included appropriations for the water treatment plant.
“That was a sizeable loan that increased appropriations, so we as a city adopted a budget showing that we were going to receive those revenues and expense those revenues, so your appropriation level included roughly about $30 million of those funds,” he said. “Also, for SDCs and many other funds, the previous city manager approved appropriations that you may not have officially received at the time. The intention was that you were applying for grants, you were gonna get those monies eventually, to approve those appropriations so that you could start spending as soon as you got approval for those grants. So that increases the appropriations level.”
For the next fiscal year, Ogden decided to approach the budget differently by not appropriating funds until the city is actually approved for them, such as anticipated grants, Brown said.
“Last year’s budget adoption was very aspirational, as far as what you were going to receive in expense specifically with grant funds,” he added.