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Attachment 1
<br />City Manager’s Office
<br />Memo
<br />To: Mayor and City Council
<br />From:Patrick Trudgeon, City Manager
<br />Date:September 22, 2025
<br />Re: 2026Preliminary Budget and Levy
<br />As the City Council is aware, under state law, the City must adopt a preliminary tax levy for the
<br />City budget and Economic Development Authority (EDA) by September 30 each year. Once
<br />the preliminary tax levy is adopted, it may be lowered but cannot be increased. While not
<br />required, the City has traditionally adopted a preliminary City and EDA budget at the same time.
<br />The City and EDA budget can be adjusted up or down as part of the final adoption. However,
<br />as stated, the City and EDA tax levy cannot be raised beyond the approved preliminary tax levy.
<br />The City Council is scheduled to adopt the final City and EDA tax levy and budget on December
<br />8, 2025.
<br />For the 2026 City budget and levy, given the request to add 22 public safety positions and other
<br />cost pressures, I have laid out a series of budget and levy scenarios for the City Council to
<br />consider. These scenarios include a base budget that does not include any new public safety
<br />positions (Base Budget) , scenarios where the public safety positions are included in the budget
<br />with and without the use of grants (Scenarios 1 &2), and scenarios where electric and gas utility
<br />fees are used for capital funds and existing levy freed up with the use of franchise fees pay for
<br />the costs of adding the public safety personnel. Scenario 3 includes the use of grants to assist in
<br />the costs of adding the public safety personnel while Scenario 4 does not include the use
<br />of grants. A table showing these scenarios is shown . The total levy amounts
<br />include both the EDA and City levy.
<br />Base BudgetScenario 1Scenario 2Scenario 3Scenario 4
<br />2026 Levy Total$ 33, 035,726$ 33,035,726$ 33,035,726 $ 33,035,726$ 33,035,726
<br />Levy Increase$ 2,318,267$ 2,318,267$ 2,318,267$ 2,318,267 $ 2,318,267
<br />ADD
<br />FD Positions$- $ 177,029$ 708,115 $ 177,029$ 708,115
<br />PD Positions$- $ 836,000$ 1,003,000$ 836,000$ 1,003,000
<br />Reallocate existing levy$- $ -$ (986,000) $ (986,000)
<br />Total Adjustments$- $ 1,013,029$ 1,711,115$ 27,029 $ 725,115
<br />Adjusted Levy Increase$ 2,318,267$ 3,331,296$ 4,029,382$ 2,345,296 $ 3,043,382
<br />Adjusted Levy Amount$ 33,035,726 $ 34,048,755$ 34,746,841 $ 33,062,755$ 33,760,841
<br />Levy Increase %7.55%10.84%13.12%7.64%9.91%
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