09-09-25 City Council Workshop Packet

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year – which decreases debt more effectively but does not grow the Infrastructure Fund as much. o Additional revisions to these planning documents can be made during future reviews and as part of the Strategic Financial Planning process. • Decreased City Center CIP Levy by $70,000. o Staff’s recommendation is for all capital levies to move toward a model that covers depreciation. The annual depreciation of the City Center facility is approximately $240,000 ($12 million over 50 years). The 2025 City Center CIP levy was $50,000, so the revised 2026 levy was decreased to that amount. • Decreased Park Capital Reserve Levy to $0. o This levy was established in 2025 to plan for long-term replacement of park equipment and/or use of cash to fund possible future ballpark improvements. The Park Dedication Fund is also available for this use; however, that fund is funded solely by new development. • Ballpark Fund Levy should remain as proposed. o This levy is used solely for repayment of an interfund loan to the Sewer Fund that was for the purchase of land for a future ballpark. • Vehicle & Equipment Levy – remains as proposed. o This fund is used for purchase/replacement of vehicles and equipment. This funding level is what is planned in the current draft of the CIP, and revisions may affect the replacement of vehicles and equipment. This levy needs to grow to fully fund replacement of existing equipment and follow existing replacement policies. • Street Maintenance Levy – remains as proposed. o Street Maintenance has been noted as a high priority, so we want to ensure that activity is properly funded. • The result of the above changes is a levy increase from 2025 of 14%. o The new estimated tax rate is 29.57%. o This equates to a 2.72 percent point change in the tax rate over 2025. o Without the Ballpark Levy, that change would be 2.05 percentage points, in line with older council goals (3 years+) despite major changes in staffing and large projects not accounted for in those earlier long-term plans. Summary of Changes to Draft Budgets since August Workshop • Refined project estimates: o Decreased Market Wage Study by $15,000 o Decreased Strategic Financial Plan by $40,000 o Removed the GIS Location Study for future Fire Station 2 • Corrected several formulas (this occurs regularly with the use of Excel for budgeting purposes). • New cell phone plan slightly reduced related costs • Adjusted pay grade for new Fire Captain positions • Reduced estimated increase in Health Insurance costs • Removed Contingency Reserve • Changes result in an increase of 11.2% over the 2025 Budget • Again, Council direction was to utilize fund balance for one-time projects such as Comprehensive Planning and Capital-type purchases. The current total of projects & capital-type purchases in the General Fund is now $335,500. The budgeted use of fund balance is $270,000.