March 31 meeting will start talks on how to adjust service levels and revenue streams to ensure fiscal sustainability
By Sabrina Cotta
Like all jurisdictions, the city of Ashland has significant considerations as it moves through the budget process. There has been a refinement of priorities with the City Council and an acknowledgement of future uncertainty given the broader economic climate.
The past two years Ashland has worked through a backlog of needed projects and transitioned through a period of rebuilding. Moving forward, the city is aiming to streamline and be more efficient in its service delivery while recognizing that escalating costs in both personnel and materials put an outsized burden on the general fund. The main revenue source for the general fund is property tax, which is capped at a 3% increase annually.
The city’s general fund pays for police, Fire & Rescue, wildfire mitigation and emergency management, parks and recreation, community development and administration services. Personnel are the city’s largest expense and essential in providing services to the community. This budget season the city will be working to right-size service-level expectations with expected revenues.
How did we get here?
As in many cities and households across the United States, the city’s revenue streams have increased less quickly than expenses. Here in Oregon, property taxes — which used to be the primary funding source of local government — were capped at only 3% growth every year, starting in the 1990s.
As the years have gone by, property taxes have been a smaller and smaller part of general fund revenue streams. To make up for the gap in revenue, Ashland has relied on fees that appear on your utility bill. These fees are $1.50 for public safety to support police and fire, $3 for wildfire mitigation and an electric utility user charge that is used to support all general fund services. (Unlike local jurisdictions such as Talent, Central Point and Medford, Ashland does not have a parks fee.) The city’s fees, however, have not been regularly adjusted to keep up with the escalation of costs. Consequently, their purchasing power is less and less each year.
What is ahead?
Starting on Monday, March 31, City Manager Sabrina Cotta and Finance Director Mariane Berry will begin discussions with City Council on how to adjust service levels and revenue streams to ensure a balanced budget and fiscal sustainability in the future. This conversation will continue through April, being taken up by the Citizens’ Budget Committee for review.
We invite you and any community members to join us during these discussions. To see when these meetings are occurring, visit ashlandoregon.gov/BudgetProcessResources. We are Better Together!
Sabrina Cotta is the city manager of Ashland. She can be contacted at Citymanageroffice@ashlandoregon.gov.
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