Richland previews nearly $350 million preliminary budget; council asks for more detail

Brandon Allen, the city’s finance director, presented the preliminary 2027 budget to the Richland City Council, saying “we're just under $350,000,000” for all funds and that the general fund is about $86,000,000. He told council the draft is preliminary and that the city will continue fine‑tuning figures through October as state revenue numbers arrive.

Allen broke down key drivers: a projected 3.8% increase in expenditures compared with projected revenue growth of about 2.4–4.9% depending on line items, a large swing in capital outlay tied to specific projects, and notable one‑time and carryover items. He said a 522.6% swing in some capital revenue lines reflects small base numbers rather than sustained growth. “We still expect mostly minor changes going forward but there will definitely be some cleaning up,” Allen said.

Council members questioned specific cost drivers and requested more clarity on what the manager had cut from departmental asks. Allen said the proposed budget includes about 4.9 new FTEs (the original request was 11.9) across several departments — including parks/facilities, IT (conversion of a 0.5 FTE to full time) and two police positions — and that benefits and medical premiums were principal upward pressures. He warned that medical‑claims volatility and pharmacy costs, including high‑cost GLP drugs, have pushed premiums up and that the city is not proposing major plan design changes this year, only a premium increase.

The council asked for additional detail on the manager’s cuts and the fiscal trade‑offs. City Manager John Amundsen and Brandon Allen provided a list of personnel and non‑personnel requests recommended not to be funded, and council signaled it wanted the itemized cut list and additional clarifying materials before final readings.