City manager outlines $251.5 million FY25 budget, stressing employee pay, schools and transit

City Manager Mister Sanders presented the city’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget to the Community Budget Forum, saying the plan totals $251,526,900 in revenues and expenditures and reflects about $23 million in new revenue and roughly a 10% increase over the prior year.

Sanders said the budget is grounded in council priorities: ‘‘fairly compensating our employees, and helping us to recruit the best that we could in our market,’’ and sustained investments in schools, affordable housing, climate action, transportation and public safety. He told the forum the five‑year capital improvement plan totals about $56 million and highlighted a proposed $30 million Walker pre‑K center.

On schools, Sanders said the school board’s original request of $12 million was later revised to $9 million; staff identified $6 million in the proposed budget and, after further adjustments, recommended a local match increase that would bring local school support higher (the council later discussed keeping a $7 million floor). The manager also noted an $8.9 million FY25 allocation tied to pupil drivers and related transportation supports.

The proposed budget creates a five‑year, $5 million climate action fund (about $1 million per year to the newly formed Office of Sustainability) to support the council’s adopted climate plan, Sanders said. On transit, staff recommended adding positions to support reopening the downtown transit center and a transit planner and buyer to accelerate procurement and fleet electrification planning. Public safety investments in the budget include continued funding for alternative response and gun‑violence intervention programs and absorption of 15 firefighters added under a prior SAFER grant.

Sanders said staff also identified significant cost reductions to help balance the proposal, including tighter vacancy assumptions and limits on new FTEs, while explaining the political difficulty of asking for additional tax revenue. The manager closed by emphasizing the budget’s alignment with the priorities the council set and the trade‑offs staff made to present a balanced package.

The council heard the presentation before a lengthy public comment period and later spent substantial time discussing trash fees, transit staffing and a tax package that the budget is built on.